Demolished
by Prophe-Cass
Summary: S7 spoilers! An AU where Acxa and Coran set their rescue mission about five minutes later then cannon. Even the slight delay has left the team broken and depressed, and has led to Pidge laying on the ground, physically shattered. (An extension to the Pidge-gets-tortured-scene from 'The Way Forward')
1. Prologue

"If you insist on maintaining this charade of ignorance, you leave us no choice but to apply pressure." Zethrid threatened, her glare striking a match of terror in the Paladins' hearts.

"Finally!" Ezor chimed, smiling brightly. "Who's our first victim?"

Zethrid and Ezor both looked around at the group of heroes, Zethrid making a decision before her best friend could land on a choice.

"You." She cackled, grinning at Pidge. "I'd bet half my fleet that this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one."

The youngest Paladin scooted herself a little farther away. Not much, and hardly noticeable, but she did. The Paladins all took a half step forward, doing what they could to protect her.

Ezor grinned, walking towards her slowly, adding a dramatic flare to the situation.

"Don't you touch her!" Lance snarled, charging them in a mad rush as adrenaline kicked into his veins.

However, Ezor easily overpowered him, kicking him against the wall in hardly a second.

A sentry instantly trained their laser blaster on him as he raised his head, making everyone think twice about going over to help him.

"Your defiance is adorable and so very misguided." Zethrid smirked, staring at the Blue Paladin.

"Leave us alone!" Pidge ordered, glaring at them will all the rage she could muster into her face.

Ezor grinned, whipping out her tentacle that sprouted from her head to clasp at Pidge's restraints, pulling her closer.

Pidge let out of cry of fear, and Hunk cried out her name in fright.

Pidge landed into Ezor's outstretched hand, groaning as the former general grabbed her armor to keep ahold of her.

"Let her go!" Keith ordered, in the process of lunging forward when he heard a laser gun get cocked. He froze, glancing at the Galra who kept his blaster pointed at him.

Pidge was moaning slightly, the fear evident in her eyes as she stared at Ezor, close to tears.

Ezor slammed her against the wall between the Paladins, having no problem in giving them a front seat view to the torture.

Ezor forced Pidge further up the wall, the sound of metal, Pidge's suit, grinding metal, the brig's wall.

Pidge kicked her legs against the wall, doing nothing to slow her demise.

"Answers!" Ezor demanded, her eyes fixed directly on the Paladin she was so keen on torturing.

"We told you, he's dead!" Keith hissed, clenching his fists as hard as he could.

"Release Pidge, right now." Shiro ordered, his remaining arm clenching as he resisted the urge to attack them.

"And why would we do that?" Zethrid snarled, crossing her arms. "We could kill her without a second thought, you know."

"So." Krolia glared, narrowing her yellow eyes. "What's stopping you?"

All the Paladins rounded on her with a look of surprise, a few roaring her name in anguish. The two ex-generals, too, were taken aback.

"Well…" Ezor mused, before pausing to think her statement over.

"We need answers." Zethrid broke in, apparently having thought it through in a flash instant. "And this is the only way to do it. Unless…" she paused for dramatic effect. "…you're fine with letting her miserable life slip out of this reality…"

"No!" Everyone gasped at the same time, including Krolia, who evidently hadn't wanted any harm to befall the youngest Paladin because of her prodding statement.

"How about we up the level of torture?" Zethrid suggested, towering over the Paladins as she smirked.

"Yeah." Ezor agreed, ignoring the protests of anger that arose from the Paladins lips. "Let's do that."

"Stop hurting her!" Allura demands, her eyes turning frosty.

"Hmm." Ezor grinned, using her free hand to punch Pidge's cheek, alright my a small cry of pain from the Paladin as it began to darken into a bruise. "I think I'll continue."

"She's only a child!" Romelle snarled, turning from her normally passive side to her enraged half. "Stop it!"

"Oh. Gee…" Ezor taunted, adjusting her hand position so that her lanky fingers were wrapped around the youngest Paladin's neck. "That's too bad you feel that way…I really, really feel like KILLING someone, don't you think, Zethrid?"

"Yeah. That'd be great." Zethrid nodded, her expression turning cruel.

"You unhand her this instant!" Keith roared, slamming his foot against the ground.

"Hmm…I don't know…" Ezor mused, tapping her finger against her lips as she over looked them. "I have…well, fun is putting it lightly. But, yeah, I have but fun with this one. I don't want to stop, or trade, or whatever you want me to."

Pidge was beginning to thrash in Ezor's grip, trying to get air in through her lungs, her eyes glazed as she coughed horsey.

"Let her go this instant!" Shiro ordered, his eyes turning frosty.

"Like I said earlier; no. I'm having fun." Ezor grinned, cocking her head at them as Pidge tried unsuccessfully to kick the older woman away from her. "Besides, it's really funny looking at your expressions."

"Do you think this is a joke?!" Romelle gapped, staring at them in shock. "Do you actually think that this is enjoyable to watch?"

"Let us elaborate; enjoyable for us. Depressing for you." Zethrid smiled, all teeth. "After all, if it was anyone else, they'd fight back, and maybe be able to get away. It's more fun like this."

Pidge went slack in Ezor's grip, causing all the other Paladins to let loose a string of threats and demands and pleads.

"Oh." Ezor looked at her in disgust, sighing. "She's no fun anymore." She grunted, tossing Pidge onto the floor farthest from the Paladins.

As soon as Pidge came to a stop, she spluttered out several weak coughs, her breathing eventually falling back to the normal rhythm.

"Pidge!" Everyone sighed in relief, taking few steps in her direction before guns were once again pointed in their direction, freezing them.

"Did you really think we'd end it there?" Zethrid snarled, walking up to Pidge as she stared down at the latter.

Pidge, who still managed to keep conscious, stared up at her with a worried expression, her eyebrows knit together in pain.

"Pidge, keep calm." Keith called over, wishing he could provide better comfort. But, with the gun aimed at him, and with Zethrid towering over her, there was nothing he could do. Anything he said would end up as a lie.

"It's gonna be okay!" Hunk assured her, obviously a false statement.

Lance pushed himself into a sitting position, doing nothing that would make the guard push the gun harder into his skull. "Yeah. Hunk's ri-"

He was interrupted by a piercing screech as Zethrid stomped down on Pidge's leg, an eerie snapping sounding at the same time.

Everyone flinched at the sound, some(just Romelle)covered their ears with a squeak.

Unfortunately, as soon as the scream died away and they were only left with the tired pants that came from the youngest Paladin to occupy the room, Zethrid stomped down on her other leg, and everyone called out Pidge's name again, fighting back the urge to walk closer to her to give her comfort.

Just as Zethrid raised up her hearty foot to bring down on Pidge's other arm, the alarms blared.

"Hall breach in hanger one. Lockdown sequence initiated." The recorded voice chimed, causing Zethrid and Ezor to pause, before they both heading out the door with their guards, resentfully casting a glance back at Pidge.

"Thank God." Keith gasped, easily the first to her as he checked her breathing and pulse. Shiro came second, instantly inspecting her legs. Lance came next, instantly helping Shiro with the inspection since he had two hands instead of one, and they were chained in front of him. Hunk came next, combing his fingers through her hair as he tried to comfort her tired sobs. The three women were a bit slower to approach, but, when they did, Krolia instantly pushed all of the males away from the girl, crouching over her.

"Keith." She instructed, jerking her head to indicate that her son must approach. "Try to get her comfortable. Romelle, take off your boots; they'll act as excellent splints. Allura, keep everyone out of my way!"

Allura frowned, slightly confused by the order, and found that everyone already had fallen into line, and, despite wanting to be close to Pidge, kept their distance.

They all looked on in awe as Krolia worked, and although her hands had limited motions, she still managed to fix Pidge's legs, for the most part.

"…Mom?" Keith asked, worry sparking in his expression. "Will she…"

"She'll be fine." Krolia told them, sitting back on her heels to look at the rest of the group.

At her words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, visibly relaxing.

"It isn't all cheery, however. Her small structure isn't built for inter-galactic travel, much less such advanced torture. She might…well, she'll be fine for now, but one more torture sessions hosted by those two fricken' quiznaks would certainly seal her fate."

Shiro mumbled something about watching one's language under his breath, but everyone ignored his statement.

"So. We need to get out of here before then." Lance mused, staring at her questionably.

"How?" Inquired Romelle. "Our hands are all bound. There's no way to free us."

"Keith." Krolia barked, and her son got her point.

"There's still only one guard." Keith reported, glancing out the tiny window.

"Everyone," Krolia ordered, gesturing to the door. "Line up around the door, be prepared to jump the guard."

"Pidge?"

Krolia hesitated, frowning at her. All signs pointed to Pidge being unconscious, except how her eyes would flutter open every few moments and close soon after.

"I don't know." She admitted. "Having a team member who can no longer walk will put a dent on any possible way we can escape."

"I can carry her." Shiro reassured her, kneeling beside her limp form and holding her carefully with only one arm. He did it in such a way that he didn't apply pressure to her legs, despite having his fingers curled around her femur's armor.

"Are you sure you're up for it?You're still recovering." Keith pointed out, frowning uncertainty at his older brother.

"If we stay, she is going to die. And we can't drag her around. This is the best way." Shiro pointed out.

"If you get tired, I'll gladly take over." Hunk volunteered. "Just don't overexert yourself."

"Alright." Krolia sighed, then glanced at the door. "The alarm has stopped. They could be back at anytime. Positions, everyone."

Within seconds everyone was lined up, braced and ready for the doors to open.

Suddenly, loud grunts and screams sounded from outside the door, and, when it opened fully, revealed the four mice, happily chittering to Allura as they sat proudly atop the beaten-up officer.

* * *

 **Author's Note; this is my multi-chapter book based off of season 7! It's an AU, if you couldn't already tell, based off of how perfect Acxa and Coran's timing was. So…what if they were five minutes too late? I dunno. I just like the idea. I hope to update every Friday or Saturday. Prepare yourselves for more Pidge angst!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes; This takes place after the escape from Ezor and Zethrid's prison. The escape happened in much the same way, except Shiro carried Pidge for the entirety of it, and Pidge was unresponsive.**

* * *

"Will she be okay?" Shiro asked, his voice cold as he stared down at Pidge.

"Well," Krolia hesitated, flipping through a holo-screen that showed Pidge's vitals. Unfortunately, the healing pod had used much of its energy healing Shiro, thus was unable to heal Pidge. So instead of being in the Cryo-pod, Pidge just laid there on a makeshift bed, unresponsive.

"This is in God's hands, Shiro." Krolia told him, frowning at a screen before rolling her eyes and waving it away. "The best we can do is be there for her, tend to her wounds, and pray."

"When do you think she'll wake up?" Keith inquired, pushing his way to the front of the crowd.

"I don't know. She was badly damaged, so her body went into a coma to help her regenerate her blood, new bone tissue, an other such necessary body structures. She also has a tentative sleep schedule. So. It could take up to a full week, perhaps longer, Even though the human body typically only needs twelve hours of sleep no matter how long they stay awake, she'll probably have to sleep for several days."

"Days?!" Lance spluttered, surprised. "How'll we, you know, fly the lions in that time?"

"I saw a cord in the Blue Lion long enough to shackle all the lions together. We could use that to pull along the Green Lion." Krolia acknowledged. "We would have to find…what do you call it? IVs? Well, whatever they are, you'd have to use them to keep her nourished. I, myself, doubt she'll be asleep longer then a week, but I do not have control over such things." Krolia sighed, rubbing her scalp. "I'm sorry that I cannot give you a straight answer."

"Paladins…" Allura spoke gently, attracting everyone's attention. "We cannot stay here. We have already been here for an entire quintent and counting. We have to move on, continue to Earth."

"Which means we should decide which person should be the best passenger for each Paladin. Again." Romelle frowned, remembering the incident from the previous flight.

"This time Lance is NOT choosing passengers." Hunk immediately decided, scowling.

"How about the others can choose who they'll go with?" Keith suggested. "Mom, who do you want to go with?"

"Don't care." Krolia shrugged, crossing her arms as she leaned against the cave wall. "I'm flexible."

"Okay. Acxa?"

"I'm not coming." Acxa had stayed quiet mostly, but she was verbal when asked.

"Um. What?"

"I'm not coming." Acxa repeated, crossing her arms. "I need to report back to the rebels, and here's the best bet. It is a listening outpost, after all."

"You sure?"

"Trust me on this. Thank you all for your hospitality, but I must depart from your company. There are too little troops out on the field, and I must not delay your return to your home planet."

"Are…are you positive?" Keith inquired, reaching out to grab her hand gently.

She let him, but ignored the touch. "Don't make a scene, Keith. I'm not coming."

"Wait…you're a rebel?" Lance blinked. "I mean…Pidge's brother is a rebel…if you know him, I mean, you can…I dunno…"

"I will take a message." Acxa deflated, frowning at him. "What's his name and what does he look like?"

"His name's Matt. He looks like Pidge, but straighter hair, a scar on his right cheek, and he's a male." Shiro spoke up, stepping closer to her.

"Ah. Right." She typed into her gauntlet a few, quick words. "Officer Matt." Acxa said quietly. "Yes. I was on a mission with him a few weeks ago."

"How is he?" Keith asked, eyes widening.

"It is he…dead?" Shiro asked, stiffening at the thought.

"Alive, when last I saw him. I have not heard any news of his death. He has a significant other who he tends to go on missions with." Acxa clicked a few more buttons onto her link, then pulled out a chip and handed it to Shiro.

"This is all the information I have on him, up to just recently. There is much I have not read, but I do know that there is file photos of him in here. It's risky, we know, but it's 'crucial' according to Matt."

"Makes sense." Shiro accepted the chip thankfully, nodding to Acxa. "He is Pidge's brother."

"Yes." Acxa smiled thoughtfully. "I can see the resemblance." She turned back to her equipment, waving them on. "Do not allow me to disturb your conversation. Continue with your friend-sorting."

"Okay." Keith nodded, his eyes still on her as he turned to the group. "So…where do you want to go, Romelle?"

"Red Lion!" Romelle pumped her fist excitedly. "Red was Bandor's favorite color, after all."

Lance stifled a groan of annoyance, giving her a weak, and not very convincing, thumbs-up.

"Okay. And I'm bringing my wolf."

"Needs a name."

"No. Which lion, Coran?"

"I'll ride with the princess." Coran decided, fiddling with his mustache. "I'd feel much better knowing that she was safe."

Allura coughed something into her fist, probably an insult, from the way Lance, who was closest, laughed slightly.

"That leaves Pidge and Shiro." Keith looked over at Pidge, biting his lip. "I guess we'll all take turns exchanging Pidge."

"Wait." Shiro held out one hand to stop Keith, an idea springing to mind. "What if we just let Pidge be in the Green Lion? I think she'd like, when she awakes, to find herself in a familiar area, not tossed around from place to place like a sack of potatoes."

"Yeah…" Keith thought about that. "But, at the same time, we would want someone with her, to help it something happens."

"I could go." Shiro suggested. "I'd be in there with her, and I've received basic first aid from the Garrison. Krolia could also teach me skills she has from being a blade member."

"You sure?" Keith asked, glancing at the others, who seemed okay with the thought. "You're still recovering."

Shiro found no need to point out that was Keith's usual excuse to stop him from doing anything worthwhile. The Red Paladin had gotten the line from his mother. "Keith. It's simply watching over Pidge. What could go-"

"NO, no, nope, no! You are not saying that!" Lance suddenly interrupted, clamping a hand into Shiro's mouth.

Shiro shoved Lance off of him, frowning slightly at the younger boy. "I don't even know why you did that."

"In movies, if you say THAT LINE, something always happens!"

"What line?"

"You can't get to me that easily!" Lance hissed.

"Um. Okay, then. So, Keith, back to what I was saying, what could go wrong?"

Lance let out a horrified gasp, activating his shield, ducking behind it. "Gaah! Bad things!"

"Is he always like this nowadays?" Shiro asked, turning to the others curiously.

"Yep, pretty much." Hunk sighed.

"I still don't understand how he became a Paladin." Krolia deadpanned.

"You get used to it." Allura joked.

"He's an idiot." Keith grunted.

"I'm, like, right here!" Lance frowned. "I'm just cautious because, one day, something IS gonna happen like in the movies."

"Yeah, right." Keith rolled his eyes, turning back to Shiro. "Okay. So. When should we head out?"

"You should rest three more nights." Acxa told them, setting aside a large device that probably would have caused Pidge to have geek out. "The lions need to charge, and I think I have an IV somewhere that you can have. We need to attach is somewhere so it doesn't roll around the cockpit. Also, we still need to attach the tether to the Green Lion. Three days should give you all enough time to prepare everything and get some rest."

"Good plan. We'll leave in three days." Keith decided, nodding. "Thank you for hosting us."

"It's the least I can do." Acxa assured him, raising to her full height as she looked them over. "You all need to get back to your planet as soon as possible."

"Hey. Acxa. I have a question. Is there a running empire?"

"No, fortunately. Ezor and Zethrid killed the arcamist and blew up planet Feyiv."

"Sendak?" Romelle inquired, a slight tremor in her voice. She had never come across the warlord, but had heard stories from the Paladins about his evil.

"Still out there, last I heard." Acxa sighed. "He's the closest to having a proper empire, though, without the arcamist, there is no coronation, thus he can not be crowned. Nobody has seen the majority of his army for the last few deca-phoebs. They were last spotted heading for the outer most reaches of the empire. Sendak himself has disappeared into the depths multiple times, but has always reemerged with news of his victory over planets, though always with just a few ships by his side."

"Where do you think the other ships are."

"Nobody knows. Any ships that follow him are promptly blown to bits." Acxa dropped a few logs onto the fire in the center of the room.

"Earth is in the outer reaches of the universe." Coran chimed, frowning. "It's possible that Sendak has picked up on our communications to Earth, like Zethrid, Ezor, and Acxa, and is using it as leverage."

"That can't be possible!" Lance insisted, jutting out a lip. "How would Sendak know where Earth is?"

"Earth may be out of the way of all the main systems, but it still is on star maps." Allura pointed out, frowning slightly.

"Think cheerily, guys. Sendak probably didn't pick up our transmissions, or else he would have been the guy to pick us up." Hunk pointed out, unwilling to give into the possibility of Sendak owning their planet.

"You bring a good point." Keith said, relaxing.

Everyone murmured their agreements, sighing with relief.

"Even so, we should stay on our toes." Krolia ordered.

Despite her command, everyone pushed the idea of Earth being attacked, or enslaved, to the back of their minds, refusing to admit that she may be right.

"Are you sure she'll be okay?" Hunk inquired, staring at Pidge. "She looks…really bad."

"She just broke both of her legs, the impact with the ground caused her to begin bleeding out, and her throat was closed up slightly from Ezor squeezing it. Without the proper supplies, I can't help her as much as I would like. So of course she's not okay, but she will be." Krolia told them, frowning. "Like I said before."

"Good." Shiro nodded, placing a hand on top of her knee.

"If she dies," Lance began, glaring, "so help me, I will force Allura to put her consciousness back into her body and will kill her again!"

"I don't know what to say to that." Keith grumbled.

"Man, you're getting really dark." Hunk frowned.

"Yeah. I know." Lance grinned, giving them his classic Lance-smirk. "I'm working on it."

"Will someone shut him out?" Krolia grumbled, narrowing his eyes at him. No one felt the need to point out that was the second time she had said the phrase in just as many days.

Instead, Acxa, too eager to make him quiet down, covered his mouth. "Done."

"Thank you." Krolia sighed, looking outside the cave, as if the tarp closing the exit was invisible. "Soon we'll be on our way to Earth, where Pidge can get better medical attention."

Everyone nodded, heaving a sigh of relief. Soon they'd be back to Earth…

Pidge would be fine. She would be.


	3. Chapter 2

"Thanks, again, Acxa." Keith told the woman, holding out his hand.

Acxa clutched his forearm, nodding to him. "I hope our paths might cross again, Keith."

"Keith." Lance's voice broke through their farewells, and Keith glanced up to the Red Lion, where the Paladin was waiting. "If you're done saying goodbye to your sweetheart, we need to go!"

"Oh my quiznak." Acxa rolled her eyes, able to hear Lance's voice through the comm clearly from where she stood.

"Lance, she's not my sweetheart!" Keith hissed, turning from Acxa. "She's just a friend."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. Now can we just get GOING?!"

"Lance." Keith sternly glared, very much aware that Lance couldn't see his face. "It's going to take one and a half years to get home. Why are you in such a hurry? It'll take us a while no matter what we do."

Lance flicked off his comm, not bothering to answer his leader.

"Farewell, Keith." Acxa told him, positioning herself into the classic Galra salute. "May God guide your path, and give you speed."

"You too, Acxa." Keith smiled. "God bless."

Acxa smiled gently, pivoting and heading back to her cave.

"So…is anyone else going to say it?" Hunk asked, mirth in his voice.

"I swear, if-" Keith began, but Coran interrupted.

"Oh! Is this your Earth-song about the tree? And the rhymes, and the marriage?"

"Um. Yeah. Anyone going to sing it with me?"

"Hunk." Keith groaned, face-palming. "I swear, if you begin singing…"

"Keith and Ac-xa, sitting' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes marriage, then comes Keith, with a baby-"

Keith choose that moment to shut off his comms, thankfully for the blissful silence that emanated from his helmet. After a few moments, in which he climbed into the Black Lion, he turned them on again, regretting it immediately.

Hunk was teaching Romelle and Coran how to sing the teasing song, and Keith sighed, angry that they were still using him as the victim.

"Okay, guys, that's enough." He told them, grabbing the controls. The Black Lion flickered to life, and he groaned when Hunk only increased his out-of-tune singing. "GUYS."

"Hunk, if you don't shut it right now, you'll have two training simulators to do in the morning." Krolia barked, and silence immediately filtered through the comm.

Keith glanced at her with admiration, and she smirked back.

"Okay. We're all ready to launch." Shiro told them, probably checking one of the screens that gave him all the Lions' stats.

"Good." Keith repositioned his grip on the controls. "Lance, if you can hear me, turn on your comms."

The comm on Lance's end flicked on, and Keith nodded sharply, controlling the Black Lion. His lion, turned, took a five step running start, and then his thrusters flared, dragging the Green Lion, who was still limp, behind him. The Yellow Lion had to grab the smaller lion's tail to keep her airborne, but, with a bit of luck, they broke the atmosphere.

Shiro kept Pidge in his arms until they cleared it, bent over her figure carefully as he braced himself, eyes squeezed tight.

She whimpered slightly at every jolt, but did not rouse from her slumber, instead murmuring things incoherently.

Shiro bit his lip, hoping against hope that she wouldn't wake up screaming, since her last memory was probably of Zethrid breaking her leg. Also, he was pretty sure the pain had hardly dimmed.

When everything had evened out, he slipped her into her 'bed', if it could even be called that. It was more of a cot built on top of a large box.

Keith, Krolia, and Acxa had helped him divide the storage room in half using talk storage containers, Shiro getting part of it, Pidge getting the other half.

He was well aware that Lance and Keith had done the same for their female passengers, something that all the people with multiple passengers seemed to do, save Allura who didn't seem to realize why they divided their quarters.

"All right, everyone, good job on clearing the atmosphere." Keith encouraged. "The next rest stop will be planet Berk, but we have two quintents until we need to get there, so be prepared for the long haul."

"Understood, Team Leader." Lance probably saluted as he spoke.

"10-4." Hunk agreed.

"Of course. We have much longer breaks ahead of us." Allura reflected, most likely nodding. "Two quintents is nothing compared to the movements, perhaps phoebs, we will travel with no rest."

Shiro nodded, despite knowing that they couldn't see him, and settled down into a chair beside Pidge.

The first thing she was aware of was the pain. Her head felt like it was on fire, her ears were ringing, she felt barf in her mouth, her arms ached, her left cheek was sore, she was so very tired, and she…she…

Oh, quiznak. Why couldn't she feel…uh-oh.

Pidge's eyes flew open with a gasp, her breaths coming in short, pained inhales.

Beside her, somebody jumped, reaching out to touch her arm gently. Pidge instantly recognized the man crouched beside her, tears coming to her eyes.

"Sh-Shiro!" She croaked, calling her friend by name. "I can't feel…I can't feel my legs-! I don't know what-! My legs…what happened to my legs-?!"

It's okay." Shiro soothed, his fingers rubbing her shoulder gently, doing his best to comfort her. "It's okay. Do you remember what-" he cut himself off, thinking on what to say next. Finally, he settled on a single word. "-transpired?"

Pidge blinking at him, eyes glazed over, phasing in and out of focus. "Oh. OH." Her voice hardened noticeably, eyes narrowing. "I'm going to…to…"

"You're going to rest." Shiro sighed, forcing her back into her covers since she was beginning to rise. "It's the best you can do until you recover fully."

"I'm fine." Pidge told him, her voice a scratchy hiss as she swatted away his caring hand. "I'll be fine. Just…" she broke into a cough, a small bit of blood coming out with the germs released from the cough. "I'll be fine."

"Pidge." If she was insisting she was fine, without waiting for him to ask, then she really was hurt. "You just coughed up blood."

Quiznak. That was NOT what he wanted to say.

"I…" Pidge drew her hand across her chin and cheek, erasing any signs of blood. "I'm just a little bruised Shiro-" she began, before more blood began to swell from her mouth.

"Pidge!" Shiro took her by the shoulders, shaking her gently. "Stop it. You're going to end up killing yourself. You obviously have internal bleeding, and we can't help you with it; the healing pod is out of commission. Don't move, and it'll slow the bleeding."

Pidge stared at him, worry in her eyes, looking close to tears. "How much did they torture me?" Her voice was strained with every word.

Shiro had to pause, staring at her worriedly. The question had caught him off guard, and he had to take a moment to gather up his courage. "I want you to know something, Katie." He told her, using her birth name in favor to her alias. "I'm not gonna sugar-coat anything, okay. One reason is I don't know how to do it, and the other is that I want you to be prepared. Are you prepared to know the truth, full swing?"

"Yeah." Pidge almost nodded, but stopped herself, not wanting to deal with the pain, and probably the internal bleeding.

"They choked you, Pidge. They held you off of the ground by your neck, and they just left you there." Shiro's voice already was slightly shaking, the memory far too resent to be fine to talk about. After months of peace in the Black Lion, this hit him full swing as terrible, and only made him reflect on all the awful things from his Galra imprisonment. He continued on his explanation, Pidge sinking into herself more with every addition to the ever growing list.

When Shiro was done, he looked her up and down, realizing how bags were suddenly under her eyes, her face a pale white, and sweat trailed down her forehead.

"Pidge?" He asked, tilting his head at her.

She jumped, blinking warily at him, worry creasing her forehead. "Are you sure I will heal? I wanna be completely fine before we get to Earth."

"The best you can do is rest." Shiro sighed, touching her hair gingerly. "And…um…don't panic."

Pidge blinked at him drearily, but she obeyed, sinking into the covers. "Okay."

Now that was weird. If she was just "kinda" hurt, she would hide it. If she was in agonizing pain, she would insist that she was fine without being asked. But…when she didn't argue…

Oh dear gosh no.

As soon as she dozed off again, Shiro left the room, turning on his coms as he took a deep breath. "Hi, everyone. Pidge was awake a few minutes ago."

"Really?" Hunk whooped. "Is she awake now? If she's awake now, I'm gonna squeeze 'er and never let go!"

"Yippee! Can she hear us, like, right now?" Lance inquired, his voice chipper.

"Leave it to Pidge to wake up just as we leave the planet as Acxa's medical aid. Mom, you owe me three thousand GAC." Keith sneered.

"Yeah. I know." Krolia answered, her voice distant as if she was calling from the other room. She was most likely tending to the wolf.

"That's wonderful! We'll be sure to check on her as soon as we land on Berk." Allura decided, her voice calm.

Coran let out an unusually happy noise. "Is she currently on the mend?"

"How was Pidge fairing?" Romelle asked.

Shiro, probably unwisely, decided to hit all the questions with one stone. "Yes. No. No. Kinda. She's really bad." He glanced back through the open door at her, and sighed. "I suck at medical care." He hissed.

"Hmm." Krolia's voice neared, probably coming closer to the coms. "When the wolf gets better, I'll be able to assist, but, until then, I won't be able to help much. The best you can do is let her rest. Now, did you notice any difference to her past condition?"

"Yeah." Shiro shut off his coms to the others, so that he could speak directly to the Black Lion. No offense to the others, but they were just kids. They shouldn't know all the awful things that were effecting Pidge. "Internal bleeding. She kept…um…coughing up blood."

"How much?"

"Not much at all." Shiro assured her. "But she still did, and she looks kinda pale."

"Of course." Keith sighed in frustration, then paused, his voice lighting up. "Mom, don't you still have your helmet?"

"I see where you're going with this. Shiro, prepare to be boarded by another passenger."

"Right." Shiro turned to glance at Pidge, and, in that moment, time froze over.

* * *

 **Author's Oath: Read, Review, and Rant about your thoughts. I'll answer any questions you have near I can without giving away too much!**


	4. Chapter 3

**Since I can't respond to guest reviews, I'll begin to on the beginning of the chapter. If you don't want me to, guests, place a review and I'll remove this section.**

 **Titanlionqqq: Oh, I'll DEFINITELY continue. Don't you worry.**

 **Guest: You asked three questions in rapid succession, which I will answer likewise. Because I can, you'll see, and, again, you'll see! Thank you! Yeah, my two closest in age brothers and I were super disappointed. There didn't have to be blood or anything, but it woulda been cool to see Pidge burned and bruised. Even seeing her recovering from the torture instead of actually witnessing the torture would be better then what we got. Admittedly, it was one of the only things I didn't like in Season 7.**

 **Alright, let me just explain one quick thing. This chapter is a spinoff of 'The Feud', but only presents part of the episode. The first half, and the ending. Please enjoy!**

* * *

"Now, let's greet the latest intergalactic goofballs who'll be playing with us today." A strange voice introduced, and the Paladins blinked in the sudden light, very confused.

"Where are we?" Lance mumbled, glancing around.

"The last thing I remember-" Pidge began, but Hunk cut her off.

"OM goodness!" Hunk giggled, reaching over and picking her up, spinning around. "You're awake! You're okay!"

"-urkkk-" Pidge groaned, trying to get out of his death grip. "-yep…yeah…H-hunk…breathe-!"

"Oh, right, sorry." He set her back on her feet, before looking her up and down. "You look great!"

Keith placed a hand on her shoulder, offering her a small smile before turning back, confused.

A weird alien on a hover chair drove up to Keith, thrusting a microphone into his face. "Hello; what's your name, and where are you from?"

Keith purposely avoided the question. "Um. Where are we?"

"Wuh-oh." The strange alien grinned. "Looks like somebody wasn't listening to Norlox."

A very snotty alien 'humphed' in arrogance.

"What is this, everyone?"

Am invisible audience called out in unison. "Garfle Warfle Snick!"

Keith also chose to ignore the fact they had only 'spawned' at the end of the announcement. "Right…but how did we get here?"

"I'll tell you how Norlox got here." The alien grinned. "His Uncle runs the studio."

'Norlox' glared at the alien is betrayal as the audience laughed.

"My name's Bob." The alien grinned, facing them happily. "Now, son, introduce you and your friends."

Keith had to sharply remind himself that this…thing was not actually his father. Some cultures just called the younger generation 'son'. "Um…I'm Keith. This is Allura…Hunk…Lance…an-and Pidge." He settled a hand on her shoulder again, weakly grinning down at her. "Nice to see your legs are…healed. Now, I'm gonna be real clear on this, Bob." Keith slammed his hands onto the game show stand in front of him, fear for the youngest Paladin hammering in his chest. If anything happened to her, so help him… "We're going to get out of this place, and you can't stop us."

"Oh." Bob grinned sneakily. "I don't think so." Snapping his fingers, a glowy structure surrounded their legs, freezing them to the platform underneath their feet, and they all let out a gasp of horror.

"Nngh-!"

Allura gapped with awe.

"It's so tight! I can't move my legs!" Lance protested.

Pidge rolled her eyes at this. "Oh-no, what a nightmare!"

"Sorry." Lance mumbled, then glanced up at Bob, confused. "Wait, Mr. Floaty Guy-"

"-Bob-" Bob corrected.

"-how did WE get here?"

"I hope not the same way I got here." Bob said, then went into a short story that backed up his words, finishing with, "I still smell like moog."

"Ew!" The audience laughed.

"Now, Keith, I'm sure you know how to play. All you have to do is accumulate qwaz-asbullion credits, and your team gets to go free. If you don't, you'll hear this noise;" a sad musical note played. "And that means you'll be trapped in this studio forever. Now, let's play!"

"Hey, this isn't right!" Hunk squeezed.

"Listen here. This is MY studio," Bob snarled, voice darkening considerably, "and you will play here for as long as I want you to." Suddenly, his voice lifted, and a bright smile blossomed upon his face. "Understand?"

Everyone frowned, unsure. But, regardless of their feelings, all of them nodded vigorously, save Keith, who managed only to give one, curt nod.

"Great! Norlox, what's the first Warfler?"

"The first Warfler is…" Norlox, reading off of a card, paused for dramatic effect before lashing out a hand and announcing what the first Warfler was. "…Pictation!"

Bob nodded, summoning a large screen behind him, and the game began.

* * *

Here came the big choice. The biggest part of the game. They needed to choose the person who would go free.

Keith reached his decision first, not even wheeling through his options. Lance had to go. He half-hated the kid, and wouldn't be able to stand it if he was stuck with his jibes for all of eternity.

Pidge decided next, mulling through her options in three seconds. Lance was smart, despite what Bob said, but he still was a goofball. He might not be able to handle being the soul Defender of the Universe. For a short time, maybe, but the fuse would shortly be quenched. Keith was a…problem child. He probably would be unable to be separated from the other four, not in the real world, at least. Not for long, anyway. Allura, despite being one of the most diplomatic people on the group and the best person able to continue her father's work, was outshone by Hunk, and Hunk alone. Also, Hunk was too kind to be trapped here.

Allura chose carefully. While she loved Lance, perhaps more then a friend, and believed that he needed a chance to be reunited with his family, she wouldn't be able to cope without him. Selfish, really, but she didn't stop to think about it. While Hunk was a better diplomat, he also tended to get distracted with food, and he wasn't nearly as smart as Pidge… Pidge, with all her insight into the technological word, and with her close alliance with the Olkari, would be the best bet to rebuild the Voltron coalition.

Hunk thought long and hard about the options spread out before him. While Pidge was quite smart, not to mention quick on her feet, she seemed to be…well, her legs were injured in the real world. Here, they appeared to be unscathed. She would be perfectly fine, well, not 'perfectly', for Bob was ruthless. But mostly fine. Mostly. Lance was a good friend, but he was…or, rather, could be, an idiot at times. Keith, despite being a leader and possibly the next emperor of the Galra, an idea that had been forming in Hunk's mind, could be short with people. It would take him forever to make new friends, so it was probably best that he stayed with them.

Lance was the final one to decide. He was pretty sure he wasn't aloud to chose himself, though, of course, he wouldn't if he could. So he did minee-mini-mo on the other four options, annoyed when his finger pressed down on Keith's button, almost unwillingly. He quickly thought up an excuse and reason why he would chose mullet-head.

"Alright, Hunk, who did you pick?" Bob inquired, scooting up to the largest Paladin.

"I picked Allura. She's a great diplomat, not to mention a princess. She has the biggest chance of joining together all of Voltron's forces."

"Aw, thank you, Hunk." Allura smiled, heart clenching at his words. Now she was embarrassed that she didn't pick him in response.

"Allura? How about you?"

"I picked Pidge. She, and her family, has the biggest chance of rekindling what my father started."

"Lance?" Bob pressed, grinning at the man in question.

Lance leaned against the stand, hoping into his hurriedly-thought excuse. It left several things to be desired, but who cared? "I chose Keith. He's the leader of Voltron, not to mention half-Galra. So I think he's like, the future."

"Keith, how about you?"

The picture appeared on Keith's dash, the oldest Paladin crossing his arms as he scowled at the alien angrily.

"Lance?" Bob stared incredulously, mouth gaping. "Why Lance?"

"I just don't want to be stuck here with Lance for all of eternity."

Lance also realized that Keith would make a good emperor. "Oh, wow, thanks man- wait, WHAT?!"

"Alright, Pidge. Everyone says you're the smartest, the wisest of all the Paladins-"

Lance coughed into his hands.

"-who did you pick?"

Hunk appeared on the view board, and Pidge slightly slouched, realizing that now they ALL would probably be stuck here for all of eternity.

"Hunk?!" Bob's eyes stretched as wide as satellites. Actually, they turned INTO satellites.

"Well, yeah." Pidge admitted, deciding that she might as well just give an explanation and get this whole thing over with. "Hunk gets along with everyone, and he's good at diplomacy."

"Thanks, Pidge." Hunk grinned, offering her his fist.

She grinned at it, fist-bumping him back. "Anytime."

"I can't believe it! Nobody voted for themselves!"

"We were aloud to?!" Lance mumbled out loud, mostly to himself, however. Hunk and Pidge both elbowed him, despite him voicing what was on everyone's mind.

"And everyone got a vote!" Bob crooned. "So you know what that means."

"What; we all get fed to the Snick or somethin'?" Lance sighed, shoulders slumping in defeat.

"You all get…" Bob's voice deepened again, shadows appearing from nowhere and stretching across his face. "…to go free!" The cheerful, upbeat music went up again, confetti spawning in midair.

"Wait, what-" Keith began, but Bob snapped his fingers and each Paladin disappeared into the thin air, disappearing from the dream stance.

* * *

Shiro tore his gaze away from Pidge, opening his mouth to speak to Krolia, add another bit about how Pidge acted.

"Man, I just dozed off and had the craziest dream." Hunk suddenly sighed through the Green Lion's coms. Shiro's eyebrows crinkled together. How had he dozed off in, what, two minutes and had a DREAM on top of that. Plus, how was his voice still sneaking past the block Shiro had put in their coms.

"Garfle Warfle Snick?" A voice said from Pidge's cot, and Shiro just about jumped out of his skin.

Pidge was awake, her eyes contemplated on the ceiling.

Shiro opened his mouth to speak to her, but another voice interrupted. Actually, two voices interrupted.

Keith's was the first he properly registered. "You guys saw that, too?"

In the same instant, Krolia spoke. "Can you move your legs?"

Lance ignored the woman's question, as did everyone, still focused on an event that Shiro hadn't witnessed. "Wait, does that mean Bob was real?"

"Pidge, answer." Krolia huffed, not pleased with being brushed aside. Shiro didn't remember until later that she was not a woman to be trifled with. It was best not to ignore her.

"Wait, did you just meet Bob?" Coran asked, most likely taking a step closer to Allura.

"Coran!" The Princess' voice was horrified, yet confused. "You know him?"

"Well, not personally. But he's a great legend." The advisor continued about the lore of 'Bob', but Shiro mostly ignored him, moving closer to Pidge to take her hand, sidestepping a model that looked suspiciously like himself. He didn't dwell too long on the thought, however. Instead he cradled Pidge's hand carefully, smiling when she offered him a tired grin.

"Well, I bet he didn't meet anyone more worthy then us!" Lance was bragging when Shiro tuned in again.

Pidge rolled her eyes.

"The guy was kinda a jerk, though, right?" Keith asked, probably slouching as he spoke.

"Oh, absolutely!" Allura agreed.

"You got that right!" Hunk chimed.

"I'm not that dumb!" Lance claimed, everyone sighing collectively.

"Riiight." Pidge joked, once more rolling her eyes at the coms.

"'Bob'?" Shiro pondered, glancing at her. "Isn't that a human name?"

Pidge shrugged, wincing as a movement slightly as a drop of blood passed her lips.

Shiro felt his heart clench, wondering if Krolia could fix Pidge's injuries.

"Alright." As if on cue, the woman seemed to appear behind Shiro shoving the man out of the way, quite literally. "Leave us." She ordered briskly, bent over Pidge, who was stubbornly insisting that she was fine, her legs were fine, and that she should be allowed to pilot the lions.

Shiro, as he backed out of the room, made a mental note to pay better attention to his surroundings. After all, he was positive all the females were out to scare him.

* * *

 **Please read and review!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Guest: Thank you! Oh, that's a relief! Some are able to figure out what will happen next in my books, and so I'm trying my hand at being unpredictable. I guess it's working! XD I laughed my head off throughout the episode. I'm glad I was able to live up, to an extent, to the greatness of the episode. No problem! *Insert thumbs-up emoji here***

* * *

It was about noon. The next day the Paladins would arrive at Berk, and were all having their passengers do a inventory check. Save Hunk. Poor guy had to wait for the passengers to be completed checking the other lions to summon them using the power of Keith's wolf, who had gotten better in a significantly short amount of time. Then the passengers could check the Yellow Lion for all the needed, and wanted, supplies.

Shiro was, of course, doing an inventory check of the Green Lion. Since Pidge was, for the most part, unresponsive, reserving her days for resting, the Green Lion only housed backup equipment and the smallest Paladin's personal items.

Such as figurines of each of the Paladins. She most recently made some of Krolia and Romelle, and the wolf was half-completed and was shoved off to the side. She had scattered the statues throughout the lion.

Lance's was in a storage closet, Hunk's was in the kitchenette, Coran's was in the Green Lion's mini-library, Allura in the cockpit, Shiro's was in the largest cargo hold, where the two Paladins slept and mostly spent their time, Romelle's was pushed into a spare box, and Krolia's was in the medical closet, shoved into the far end. He had yet to find where Pidge had shoved Keith's when they were evacuating the castle. Shiro knew where most of these were only because Pidge had directed him where to put them from her bed. There wasn't much she could do in her bed except build statues in her lap, and then have Shiro put them in the proper places. Shiro wondered what she'd do when the wolf was complete. The mice, maybe? Start on people they had met during their many adventures? Matt, perhaps? He already was aware that she had requested that he had to bring her all the junk that he could find on Berk, so that she could continue on her newly-discovered hobby.

Needless to say, Shiro was positive that the Green Lion would become the community 'Junk Lion'.

"Lunch time!" Hunk's voice chimed, and the wolf appeared from thin air, a bag draped around his shoulders.

Truthfully, the mass suddenly appearing where the air had been a second before would normally have caused a ginormous explosion from the air particles being shoved out of the way. But the quintessence that appeared a moment before the wolf spawned in the air's place acted almost as fans, shoving the air away so that, for a millisecond, the space where the wolf would appear had literally nothing in it. Then he would spawn again in it's place, and the explosion was avoided.

Shiro pulled out the two containers of food from the pouch of the wolf, best as he was able with one hand, then set them on top of a crate, patting Kosmo before he disappeared in a flash of light.

Oh, also the quintessence held back the air once he disappeared, and eased it back into the area so it wouldn't cause an explosion by rushing back into the empty areas.

Pidge was better at explaining such things.

"Is that lunch?" Speaking of the child, Pidge propped herself onto one arm, blinking at him curiously.

"Yeah. I thought you were asleep." Shiro tossed her the bag, mentally kicking himself as he remembered that she probably wouldn't be able to catch it.

However, she fumbled with it for only a moment before properly securing her grip on it. "The smell of food woke me." She told him, drawing herself into a proper sitting position like Krolia had shown her. "Also, the wolf's teleporting isn't exactly quite."

Shiro sent her an exasperated look.

"I'm kidding!" Pidge shrugged, taking a drink from the cup.

Shiro held the tablet, scrolling through it. The only thing they really needed was more spare parts for repairs.

"Shiro…?" Pidge sounded hesitant, as if she really didn't want to ask whatever was on her mind.

Shiro didn't really pay attention to her tone, though, too busy pondering which parts to get. "What's on your mind?"

"I just…" Pidge ducked her head sinking into herself. "Um…never mind."

Shiro blinked, done resorting everything to memory. "Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"Eh, it's nothing important." Pidge took a bite of the food, as if trying to get a reason to not answer. "It's not important, anyway."

 _'That's not important right now, Pidge!'_

 _'Whatever it is, it can wait; we have more pressing matters.'_

 _'Pidge, not the time.'_

 _'Pidge, if you can't talk like a normal human, then you can stow it.'_

Shiro winced, recognizing the clone's memories instantly. He had been so harsh with all the Paladins, and had tended to shut down Pidge whenever her mind even slightly drifted. The clone hadn't just reserved such treatment for the youngest Paladin, but had discarded Keith's ideas, yelled at Lance, ignored Hunk, shoved away all respect for Allura, and was just generally an evil clone controlled by Haggar. Since his arm wasn't completely destroyed, Shiro could have sworn that he heard the witch whispering in his mind sometimes. His mind would also scream at him whenever he was alone with a Paladin, ordering him to kill them. He had nearly succumbed to the clone's programming once when Pidge slept, but had resisted in the nick of time. He really hoped Pidge didn't noticed the way he kept his distance from her.

"Pidge, I'm sorry." He said, almost without his consent.

"Why?" Pidge asked, starting suddenly at his question. Shiro had a feeling he had zoned out for longer then a few ticks.

"Everything." He looked down at the cup in his hands, swirling the contents. "The clone…" he pressed to fingers to his temple. "He was so awful to all of you. You all didn't deserve it."

"Shiro, really." Pidge assured him, putting down the cup gently. "It's fine. The clone was created for evil purposes; it was out fault for not seeing through it. Besides, it's all in the past. No need for worry." She sounded like she needed to convince herself more then Shiro, but unfortunately, neither really believed her words.

Shiro, however, didn't push the subject further, emptying the empty packets and cups and other dishes into the bag when the wolf returned, picking up all the junk from the meals to return it to Hunk for him to wash.

"Everyone." Krolia's voice carried across the coms, voice distant. "How is the inventory check-through going on?"

"We need a few spare parts." Shiro told her, sending her the list with a swipe of the thumb. "Other then that, we're mostly good."

"We're running low on meat and fluto beans." Hunk told her, voice surprisingly cheerful.

"No beans!" Lance interrupted, voice rising with every syllable. "Don't you remember what happened last time?!"

"Indeed." Allura shuddered. "I do not care for the beans. The konsizlian oracles were clogged for a full week after that incident."

"Oh-no!" Romelle gapped. "Those are important in the design of all Altean architects!"

"Indeed!" Coran hummed. "And that was just a small fraction of the catastrophe that occurred."

"I'm adding beans to the list." Krolia deadpanned, ignoring the onslaught of protests. Shiro couldn't help notice that Keith let out a pleased chuckle at her announcement.

"Star child." Pidge mumbled darkly underneath her breath, crossing her arms.

"Only child." Keith correctly, hearing her words amplified through the coms.

Krolia coughed into her hands at her son's words.

Silence lapped through all the lions, everyone staring into nothing.

Finally, Keith interrupted the quietness that filled the air. "What."

"Don't Earthlings still make 'jokes'?" Krolia asked, probably frowning in confusion. "They did when I met your father."

"Um. Yeah." Keith confirmed, though his voice was still laced in confusion. "We do still make those…"

"Well. Then I was making a 'joke'. A single child was enough."

"Ouch."

"Another probably would have come out deformed."

"Right."

"Hey, Keith, I've been meaning to ask…" Lance's voice trailed off, as if he already regretted what he was about to say.

"Yeah? What?"

"What was your dad's name?"

Keith was miffed, shocked to the point of speechlessness. "Like, we all know that my parent's names are Martha and Thomas, Pidge's are Sam and Colleen, Hunk's are Jordan and Cathy, and we know your mother's name is Krolia…but what about your father?"

"I don't like talking about it." Keith snapped, his voice coming out harder then he meant to. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Keith." Krolia's voice came out gentle, yet commanding.

"Alright, sorry, Keith." Lance apologized.

There was a few minutes of silence from all the Paladins.

Shiro was about to turn off his connection to the coms when Lance spoke again.

"Guys! I have a fun something we can play!" His voice had an eager edge to it. "It's called…"

"-please don't say The Game, please don't say The Game-" Hunk murmured.

"…The Game! It's really fun. Basically, you win once everyone knows what it is."

"Hmm." Keith reluctantly agreed to play. "How do you lose?"

"By thinking of it!"

"Oh my Galra." Keith sighed. "This is going to be…'fun'."

"No, it's not." Krolia huffed.

"Sarcasm, Mom."

"Oh."

"So, you have to lose to win?" Pidge grunted. "I'm sick of this game already."

"Sorry, Pidge!" Lance sang. "But now that you know how to play it, you're not allowed to stop playing it! You can lose every half-hour."

"I really hate you." Pidge cursed.

"Ooh! This game is already intriguing! I have lost!" Romelle clapped her hands in excitement. "Oh! I just lost again."

"Um…you can loose every thirty doboshes, minimum." Lance told her.

Romelle's clapping slowed considerably. "Oh. What's another game?"

"No!" Everyone collectively yelled, not wanting to deal with Lance's game ideas.

"Well, maybe we can do some ice breakers." Hunk decided. "With just Krolia and Romelle, I mean, they're new and stuff…"

"I don't need an ice breaker." Krolia huffed. "I can break ice easily with my hands."

"Um…okay, this might not be good game for Mrs. Kogane…" Hunk mumbled, twiddling his thumbs.

"I am sure that my son introduced me as 'Krolia' so I intend for you to call me that.." Krolia sniffed, cracking her knuckles. "Also, my last name is not Kogane for I didn't lawfully married Keith's father."

"…oh."

With that "happy" note, the Paladins lapsed into silence, awkwardly fidgeting. If these were the type of conversations they were going to have for the next 1.5 years, they were in trouble.

* * *

 **Please Read and Review!**


	6. Chapter 5

**Guest: *in a sing-song voice* You'll see! I'll do my best!**

* * *

"Everyone, up!"

It was a month later, an entire month of nothing but empty space, sleepless nights…and feeling utterly useless.

By the time Keith's call filtered through the coms, Pidge had already awoken, and she propped herself up on one arm.

"Yep, I'm up." She said to the coms, waiting for Keith's conformation that he had heard.

"No…" Hunk groaned.

"10-4. Hunk, sleeping time is over. Lance, no time for slacking. Allura, there's work to be done."

"What's the point? We're just out in space, there's no day or night here." Lance complained, voice tired.

"I have to agree with Lance. We should sleep for another five doboshes." Allura yawned, probably not completely coherent.

"Guys, we can't let this long voyage make us soft or dull our skills. Routine will keep us sharp." Keith hissed, voice exasperated.

Shiro's voice was grim as he stepped into Pidge's half of the cargo bay, on his way to the cockpit. "Keith's right. Routine was how I survived being Zarkon's prisoner and being in the infinite void of the Black Lion."

"So that makes you an expert of killin' time…" Lance groaned.

Shiro opened his mouth to say something back, before snapping his jaw shut.

Pidge watched him, wondering what he had been about to say. Probably something that the clone wanted him to say. After all, the clone still dwelt in a far corner of his mind, whispering suggestions. Shiro had never actually told her this, but she had guessed from their overall conversations. Also he talked in his sleep.

"Can't we just…can't we just eat first?" Hunk stammered, exhaustion in his voice.

"No." Krolia sighed, a slight beeping filtering from her side of the coms. "Once we're completed, you may eat, but, for now, try to behave."

"Hmm." Hunk grumbled.

"Why do you sound so much like a mother?" Lance growled.

Krolia wisely decided not to answer him. "Everyone up, or I just may have you do this simulator twice."

Everybody? Pidge grinned slightly. She loved loopholes. Everybody included her, even if Krolia didn't mean EVERYbody-everybody.

Shiro, however, shot her a pointed look when she began to turn herself to the edge of the bed, and she paused, relaxing into the covers as if she hadn't done anything wrong, just rearranging her position. Then she gave him a smile, a look that used to get her just a laugh before he…died. Now all he did was narrow his eyebrows, eyes sliding into slits as he pursed his lips.

Pidge's innocent smile faded away, replaced by embarrassment. Shiro was different now. It didn't even seem like he had emotions anymore. Of course he didn't want her to act like a kid anymore. Besides, judging what Acxa had said…well, Pidge was an adult now, by Earth standards. Childish ways should be behind her. After all, she had witnessed some awful things. Entire families slaughtered like pigs, seeing Zarkon face to face, having her legs broken, stuck with the knowledge that she had killed someone…the last one the first she had encountered.

Haxus.

Shiro had found her several hours after the incident, while Lance was healing, bent over the evil Galra's body down on in surface of the engine rooms. She had been sobbing, but had run out of tears to cry by the time he found her withered form. He had hugged her for a long time, only moving her when she fell asleep. The next time she had went to stare at Haxus's body, the deceased general was gone, leaving only a memory.

Now, Shiro gazed at her frostily for a long moment before turning his back on her. From what she had heard, despite him volunteering to ride with her in the Green Lion, and apologizing profusely for his clone's behavior, sometimes he still acted as if his clone still had control.

Shiro left the room, with one final glance back at her, warning her to not try anything.

Alas, that was against Pidge's nature. As soon as he was gone, she forced her legs over the edge of the bed, grinding her teeth together with pain as her legs moved the tiniest bit.

"Ow." She hissed, only keeping herself 'afloat' by balancing on some crates. "Owowowowow."

She could make it. All she needed to do was make it to one of the crates on the far wall, and then come back. That was all she wanted.

Pidge staggered, cursing her legs, forcing them to move, just a tiny bit. "Come on." She urged then aloud. "You can do it."

In response, her bones grinned, a sickening cracking noise coming to her ears. They instantly became limp, pain stabbing through her. Pidge bit back a scream, managing to pick herself up again, using the crates as support. After two or three doboshes of collapsing, picking herself up, and falling again, she reached the crate, and she dropped to her needs beside it (probably not the best decision, seeing as how her knees were the only thing actually broken) wincing in pain as her mouth parted to let out a gasp.

The box held her armor, from the breast plate to the under-suit to the belt, and right now she desperately wanted her gantlet. She had to dig through her armor quickly, silently cursing Krolia, who had put it in here, for being so dang organized.

After quite a bit of searching, Pidge finally found it at the bottom of the box, beside the arm guards, and the shoulder pads.

Stupid Krolia…

Stupid organization…

If Pidge wasn't in such a hurry, she would have spat on the ground. As it was, she had to hurriedly drag herself back to the bed, using the crates as leverage. She just managed to pull herself into bed, pulling the covers over her and cramming the gantlet under her pillow when Shiro entered again, no doubt watching the simulator from the cockpit.

"They finished quickly." Pidge acknowledged.

"Yeah." He tossed her a wad of GAC. "Hunk was the first to go out."

Pidge fumbled through the cash for a moment, counting it up. "Hey, we agreed on five hundred GAC!"

"Fine." He handed her the last hundred. "Was wondering if you'd notice."

"Dude."

"Dude."

Pidge rolled her eyes. "Yada yada. Okay, who was the next to go out?" Shiro handed her a pouch of coins. "Keith. I couldn't believe it."

"Who next?" Pidge asked as she allowed the coins to stream between her fingers.

"Lance was." Shiro shrugged, handing her two more satchels weighed with silver.

Pidge stuck out her tongue, grinning. "Winner, winner, chicken dinner."

"I have no idea where that comes from."

"Me neither. Matt used to say it." Pidge shrugged, frowning down at the coins. "I think I'll use this newfound wealth to buy a laboratory."

"Where? Earth probably still uses dollars and cents."

"I dunno. Just…somewhere. Somewhere in the middle of the action, ya know?"

"Hmm." Shiro nodded, not really sounding like he was listening.

Pidge frowned at him, and he looked back, eyes blank.

Inside, though, his heart was clenching. He knew for a fact that Hunk wanted to pass down the Bayton, he had heard Keith say something about taking it easy once they arrived on Earth, Lance had said he was going to go to Varadero Beach to chill out, and would bring Allura, too, to meet his twin sister. So he knew that everyone was just about ready for retirement, whether or not they admitted it. But…Pidge still wanted to be in the brunt of the action?

"Are you okay?" Pidge asked, wringing her hands.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Shiro nodded, blinking at her. "Why?" He reminded himself sharply that she was a lot younger then the others, and was not even out of her teens. He didn't think she was, at least. Maybe she was. Ugh, well, the point was, she was still at the peak of her prime, and, while the others felt old, she still was young and full of spirit.

"Um…never mind." Pidge shook her head, crashing Shiro back into reality. "Nothing."

"Pidge." Shiro sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "We need to be able to communicate one-on-one with each other, especially when we're living in close quarters. It's inessential."

"That's going to be a problem." Pidge grunted, crossing her arms.

Shiro nodded slowly. He and Pidge hardly ever actually…taking. Maybe once a day, which was too little. And their minor conversations were mostly tied in link to the other Paladins.

"I know that it'll be tough." Shiro admitted, half to himself. "But we have to try."

Pidge smiled weakly at him, though her mind was elsewhere. "Yeah…it will be."

"Food incoming!" Hunk called through the coms suddenly, interrupting their conversation. "Aw, what a good wolf…fella…guy… Oh my gosh, we really gotta come up with a name for this wolf."

Pidge caught Shiro's eye, rolling her eyes as she giggled. "As if Keith would allow that." She mumbled.

Shiro chuckled, before remembering himself and stiffening his posture.

"Not gonna happen." Keith rebuffed Hunk's decision instantly, his voice with a wary twang to it.

"Aw, com'n, I vote Kosmo." Hunk suggested, voice brightening as he went against his leader's order.

"I like Kosmo." Allura voted.

"Kosmo is cool." Lance agreed.

"Yeah!" Pidge grinned as Shiro handed her a packet of food from Kosmo's pack. "It's nice."

"We're not calling him Kosmo." Keith said, annoyed.

"Oh, com'n Keith, we gotta call him something." Hunk complained.

"I figure when he's ready, he'll tell me his name." Keith grunted, lacking any avid in his words.

Pidge smirked into her cup, wondering if Keith knew dogs-er, wolves-couldn't talk.

"So Kosmo." Lance blankly responded, sighing. "Got it."

A few ticks of blissful silence pervaded the lions, in which Pidge took a sip from her cup.

"Oh! Hunk," and of course Lance was the one who ruined the peace, "this is delicious!"

"Yes, thank you Lance. Yeah, I made it from collecting fungus paste from the dung of the beetles on the last planet we stopped at to gather supplies."

"Ugh!" Lance screeched. "Hunk, please, I don't want to know what it is, I just want to eat it and pretend it's my meemaw's home cooking."

Pidge stared, distastefully down at the food as she hesitantly put a spoon full into her mouth, groaning a little.

"Really, Lance?"

Keith grunted, his classic brusqueness returning.

Suddenly a few beeps sounded from the Black Lion, withdrawing a small murmur of praise from Krolia.

"What happened?" Romelle asked, confused by why her 'adopted mother' seemed so pleased.

"Pidge had an idea to put out a passive signal, so nobody could track us again, but so we could collect signals."

"Well, I'll be a wraggler's horn." Coran puffed, pride tinting the sentence. "What is it?"

"Patching it through now." Krolia must've already been in the process of 'emailing' it to the others, for as soon as she uttered the last word every got the signal on their dashboard.

Shiro lifted his wrist to let Pidge see the frequency too, frowning as three Bii-boh-biis appeared on the screen. Honestly, he was surprised that nobody turned it off instantly.

Instead, Coran began laughing.

Shiro, in fact, was about to dismantle the communication, but Pidge grabbed his forearm and forced him to sit down on the edge of her bed, intrigued by the comedy show that the Bii-Boh-Biis seemed to be emulate.

"We need some more fun in our lives." Pidge hissed, noticeably concise. She subconsciously touched her legs as she spoke, narrowing her eyes. They both knew that she didn't understand the language, but what the heck.

Coran was ranting something about Bii-Boh-Biis really understanding comedy, but they ignored him.

The next thing everyone knew, one of the Bii-Boh-Biis had thrown a punch at another one, and the victim was laying on the ground, looking almost dead.

They all flinched, Pidge because she knew what it was like being hit, and the other Paladins because the hurt Bii-Boh-Bii reminded them all to much of how Pidge had looked during the torture session.

If Shiro had two hand available, he would have wrapped at least one of them around Pidge to remind himself that she was there.

Pidge leaned heavily into his shoulder, surprisingly needing no prompting from her peer, taking a shaky breath.

Suddenly, all noise from the comedy show cut off, static rising from it instead.

"Quiznak! What happened to the frequency?"

"Mom, what?"

"Um…why's only static coming through."

"Thank the Lord! I couldn't understand a word they said."

"My apologies, Paladins." Krolia sighed, her attention hardly on them. "I need to listen to this, though."

There was about twenty ticks of agitating silence.

"It sounds like just radiation interference from the nearest star." Pidge sighed. "You should try to just tune it out."

"No, that's just what it's supposed to sound like."

"What?" Keith sounded miffed as he spoke to his mother, although his voice still sounded calm.

"Listen to the beeps between pulses. There's a distinct pattern."

Beep…shrkkkk…beep…shrkkkk…beep…shrkkkk…beep…

It sounded almost like morse code, Pidge noticed, frowning.

"She's right!" Allura gapped.

"Back before the Blades were established, we used this crude code to communicate to each other. Few know it now, it must be a senior member."

"Kolivan…?" Keith murmured, failing to keep the hopeful light from his words.

"Possibly." Krolia hummed. "We need to track it to find out."

"Um…not to be rude, Krolia, but…uh, wouldn't that be going out of our way to find whatever it is?" Hunk asked, trembling in worry.

"Setting the course now." Keith told them, setting the destination.

Hunk whimpered.

* * *

It took them a good five hours to reach the destination, and they set down on the asteroid.

"Alright. Everyone, follow me. Pidge, sit tight." Keith ordered, pushing himself up to his feet as he nodded at his mother.

"What?!" Pidge squeaked. "That's not fair! Romelle's going!"

Romelle let out a squeak of protest, her rebuffing noise going unnoticed.

"Romelle's not injured." Keith responded evenly. "Besides, there's strength in numbers."

"And you're leaving me alone?!" Pidge pouted, feeling rejected. She might be hurt, but there had to be something she could do.

"Aw, com'n, nothing can hurt you as long as you stay in here." Keith sighed. "Relax, Pidge. It's only temporary. If we're not back in ten vargas, I give you permission to get your helmet and com us."

Pidge pouted, jutting her lip at the coms. "Fine. Make sure you make it back in eleven Vargas, alright?"

She could practically see Keith's eye roll. "Twelve, if it'll make you happy."

"Deal!" Pidge agreed full-heartedly, then pointed at the armor bin. "Shiro, can you lend Krolia my gauntlet? It's pretty handy for tight situations."

Shiro nodded, reaching into the box. He looked a bit confused when he saw how disorganized it was, but he made no comment. And if he also noticed the lack of the second gauntlet, he didn't acknowledge it in any way.

Pidge watched him leave, then, as soon as the door closed behind him, she activated the screen in her gauntlet, hacking into Keith's helmet's camera. Now she could see, not to mention hear, everything he did. The best part? She could erase all evidence that she was even watching with a push of a button.

Meanwhile, Keith exited the Black Lion, his mother and the wolf(he still refused to call his dog by his newly bestowed name)in his wake.

Keith looked out over the landscape, the ruins of the town in front of him, at least five miles long before sharp cliffs rose up on the opposite side of the cavern.

"It almost looks like Earth." Hunk noted, taking a step closer. "Like, I know it's not, but it sure seems like it…"

Shiro handed Krolia Pidge's gauntlet.

"Hmm." Krolia filed through the screens, pursing her lips. "I'm not picking up on any biorhythms…it looks completely abandoned."

"Is that a good or bad sign?" Romelle asked, chucking a pebble as far as she could manage. It managed to reach the roof of a low-bearing house, bouncing twice before breaking into several pieces.

"Bad." Keith hissed under his breath.

"Yeah, Romelle, in my experience in space, there's never been any 'good signs'." Hunk frowned sadly. "I'm sorry to admit it, but it's true."

Lance chucked a rock. It only reached half the distance that Romelle's did. "You know…Hunk's right. About the Earth thing. It's pretty peaceful."

"Yeah…" Hunk agreed quietly, longing in his eyes.

"Well, we can't just hang around up here forever. We better get moving. Find the source of the signal."

Keith ordered, slipping down the hill that overlooked the village that they stood on.

Krolia was immediately sliding down after him. Shiro came next, then Romelle and Coran, Allura and Lance, and, finally, Hunk.

"It looks awful from the ground." Keith sighed, staring up at the sky scrapers, enormous holes in them.

"An ion cannon did that." Shiro realized, pointing to a perfectly round hole near the top of a building next to them.

"The Galra." Allura hissed. "They're always destroying civilizations."

Krolia turned away, pretending to study some carvings in the wall, and Keith stared awkwardly at his feet.

They knew she didn't mean any harm in her words, but words did hurt.

"I'm sure the princess didn't mean you." Romelle comforted her adopted family, but she spoke a bit louder then she meant to.

"Oh!" Allura gasped, eyes stretching wide. "Romelle's right. I didn't mean it like that, I just-!"

"Allura, it's fine." Krolia said, her voice holding a tiny fraction of brusqueness to it. "We know you didn't mean any harm."

"Alright, break it up." Shiro ordered, gripping the chance to change the subject. "Krolia?"

"Still haven't picked up on the origins of the signal." The woman is question huffed, staring down distastefully at the screen in front of her. "I'm getting it to run an auto-scan, but it might be slow going. For now I'll do it remotely."

"My, I wonder what kind of beast made these!" Coran trailed a hand lazily over a scratch mark.

"Magic." Allura hissed, sensing the remnants of concentrated quintessence in the air.

Krolia looked over at the ruins of a building that used to be someone's home. "Something destroyed all these houses, and it wasn't just ion cannons. Even magic, unless if it's at its highest level, can't knock down a building.

Allura began shifting through the rubble, over turning the stones. "Oh!" She finally gasped, drawing back suddenly, a sob caught in her throat. She grabbed Lance, crying quietly as her peer wrapped his free arm around her.

Allura had uncovered five skeletons, a women holding two babies in their hand, yet kept her arms wrapped around a child's body, the child's body the size of a human five-year-old. A larger, make skeleton had his body wrapped protectively around his family. But, from the angle of their bodies, it was clear that the house had collapsed on top of them, killing them upon impact.

"Well…that explains the lack of life forms." Hunk murmured, pretending not to notice how Allura sobbed into Lance's shoulder, and the tender looks the Red Paladin gave his weeping friend.

"We need to keep moving." Lance whispered, his eyes still fixed on Allura.

"They should have had a proper burial." Romelle sighed sadly. "On the Altean colony, it didn't matter who died, the entire planet came to ever funeral service. There was at least five every week, though that number dropped the more Alteans left with Lotor."

Hunk ripped off his helmet and retreated into an abandoned building, probably to puke.

When he rejoined the group, they continued mournfully through the ruins. It was another kilometers before anyone spoke.

"So…magic, ion cannons, and collapsed buildings. Anyone got any ideas?" Lance asked, trying to sound cheerful, but it came out sad, depressed, even.

"These slash strikes look Mamoran." Krolia noted, pondering Lance's question hard. "There was a massacre here."

The wolf growled, pointing his muzzle towards a large pile of rocks.

"What is it, boy?" Keith asked, his hand that clenched the Bayard quivering slightly as he tried to hold back tears.

Obviously Kosmo gave no reply, bounding up the rocks and tackling whatever was on the other side.

Instantly all the Paladins followed him, staring at shock at what he had pinned down.

A man with a yellowish-brown and orange face lay there, staring up at Kosmo in shock. Well, best he could. Guy had no eyes.

"Who are you? Who's broadcasting that signal?" Keith demanded, thrusting the sword closer to the newcomer's neck.

"It was me!" The man wailed, shaking.

"Impossible! You're no Blade of Marmora!" Keith shouted.

"I will explain all if you would put down your weapons." The man begged.

"Let's see what he has to say." Krolia growled.

"You're the Paladins of Voltron." The man rose to his feet shakily, coughing.

"You recognized us?" Lance asked, cocking his head.

"Well…" the newcomer cocked his head at them. "Yes, though it took me a moment. Come, I will bring you to my home." He led the way, everyone doing their best to follow him through the terrain. "Where is the green paladin?" He finally asked, turning to face them as he stood atop a pile of rocks.

Everyone exchanged looks, unsure if they should answer him.

However, Lance, the most trusting of the group, voiced the knowledge nobody else dare speak. "She got injured in a fight a few weeks back. She's in the Green Lion, resting."

"Lance!" Keith, Krolia, and Shiro all hissed indigently.

"What?" Lance shrugged, helplessly holding up his hands in defeat. "He sure seems trustworthy."

"Thank you, Paladin." The man probably would have smiled if he had a mouth. (Hang on, how was he speaking?) It's only a short distance to my home, where I will explain everything. Now, come."

* * *

 **Please Read and Review!**


	7. Chapter 6

**Guest: Welllll…he CAN teleport…**

 **Um, despite her determination she's kinda out of practice walking. It was pure luck that she got to her armor crate and back without breaking something more. Maybe her luck will continue and let her get outside…you'll just have to wait and see!**

 **Guest: Thank you so much! I have much planned…too much planned. Thank you! I really appreciate it.**

* * *

Voltron has always been seen as a beacon of hope. A sign of liberty, of justice. But never had it been so close to destruction then now, especially without realizing it.

Behind his mask, Macidus grinned at the foolish Paladins as the followed him into his house. These fools! Soon, he would have them trapped, and he would kill them, and would feast on Paladin blood tonight. And maybe he would save a few of them, watch them write in agony as he tortured them, slowly killing them. And he would force them to watch Kolivan die, or perhaps vice versa.

Unaware of the approaching demise, the Paladins studied his cavern with a critical eye.

"This place is disgusting." Romelle sniffed, eyeing their host. A dead warknok head hung from the ceiling, green blood still dripping from the spot where it used to be connected to its body.

"This place," the man hissed. "Has been my home for the past two deca-phoebs."

"Ow, well, disgusting is Altean for lovely. You don't speak Altean, do you?" Romelle asked, slinking away from him and sitting nervously onto a log that sat around the fire.

Macidus felt no need to point out that he did, in fact, know Altean, and the word for lovely was quite different from what she said it was.

He neared the fire, frowning at it uneasily. "Thank you for coming, Paladins."

"How did you recognize us, even when we first showed up?" Lance asked, easily the most friendly with the cloaked man.

"Your suits gave it off." Macidus mused, tapping his chin. "I advise a change of costume of you want to blend in…but, oh, what do I know? A lone survivor of a massacrer…you've been gone a long time, you know."

"Yeah. We…uh…just found that out." Lance mumbled, thinking back to Acxa and sending a teasing glance at Keith.

The leader didn't notice.

"Hmm…after you disappeared, the Galra empire descended into chaos, warlords and pirates ruling the ashes of the once nightly empire."

"And of Zarkon's witch, Haggar?" Allura demanded, taking a step beside Lance.

Krolia checked Pidge's gauntlet, flashing it downwards. Biting the inside of her lip, she peered at the results curiously, then noticed a flash of silver out of the corner of her eye. She approached nervously, reaching out a hand.

Macidus didn't notice, focusing on Allura's question. "She vanished, but her Druids remained to complete her final order, to wipe out the Blades."

Krolia ignored him, touching the curtain gingerly, hesitating only a second before thrusting it open, eyes flinging open in horror. She grabbed her gun, pivoting sharply as she pointed it at the stranger. The man of untrustworthy origins. "What are you planning on doing with these?"

Now that the curtain was fully pulled aside, everyone could see the hundreds, if not thousands, of swords and knives littering the wall. But they weren't just tools or weapons. No, they were all blades, the Blade of Marmora insignia carved into the hilt of each one, the lights seeming to be on sleep mode for each one.

But, despite their unfamiliar form, clad in shadows, the Paladins all recognized them at the same time, grimacing.

"I hang them," Macidus slowly began, pretending to feel sad, "in honor of their sacrifice. After the Druids received Haggar's final wish, they spread out to conquer them."

"After Lotor arose to the throne, all known Blade locations were revealed." Allura murmured, shutting her eyes against the image of the terrible fates many had come to. Her mind flickered back to Antok, a Druid smiting him with a mightly blow, the former deputy succumbing.

"Indeed. Most Blades were called away from their missions and brought here, where Kolivan swore to protect my people. But the Druids arrived much sooner then we planned. They besieged the city with magic. My people were the first to flee, but they were slaughtered." Macidus sat quietly for a moment, thinking. "Only I remained. Kolivan, the Blades and I all took on the Druids, but for every Druid we over came, over a hundred of us fell. During the last attack, I was hit into a building. When I regained consciousness and emerged from the rubble, I was the last survivor."

"That's why the base we found was deserted." Hunk sobbed, letting his body sag in mourning.

"Indeed. I have been running the signal Kolivan gave me in hope of finding the last remaining Blades."

"There's still a few of us out there." Keith assured him, closing his eyes with pain.

"Good." Macidus rumbled.

"I recognize every single one of the Blaces. I trained many of them personally." Krolia whimpered, running her fingers along a row of hilts. "Ilun. Vrek. Lando. Furita. Shonka. Zanfor. And…Kolivan." She pulled her leader's blade out, tears threatening to spill over her eyelashes as Keith joined her.

Suddenly, before they eyes, a blue shimmer alit the light ports across the sides for a brief instant. "Huh? Kolivan's blade!"

"What is it?" Keith asked staring at shock at it. He already knew what it was, he just…it was almost too good to be true.

"Our Blades are connected to our life forces. I just saw Kolivan's blade flicker. He must be alive!" Krolia sounded relieved, though she stiffened and turned to face Macidus angrily, her mouth open to fire a challenge at him.

Macidus beat her to it. "Just…barely."

The Paladins gasped for the second time in as many minutes.

"Your hand is looking better." He bluntly admonished, tilting his head in a strange way that seemed oddly familiar to Keith.

"My…hand?" Keith blinked.

"Surely you don't remember our duel?"

Keith zoned out for a brief moment, causing confusion for all the Paladins.

"You!" He shouted, activating his Bayard in anger.

"I will enjoy killing you." Macidus grinned(or probably would have) and disappeared from view, a small device dropping from his pocket as he did so.

Time seemed to slow, Krolia's voice opening in a pained "No!"

A light appeared around the device as it cracked, and a fine explosion appeared from the rift, stretching towards everybody, threatening to freeze them in time.

Kosmo suddenly appeared before Keith, touched his leg, then vanished with his master.

* * *

Pidge gasped, tumbling out of bed. She groaned, pulling herself slowly back onto the crates as she risked another risk at her holo-screen. The Paladins had a time-bomb coming straight for them, and there was nothing she could do. As she watched the view point from Keith's helmet, the scene shifted to a blank, rock wall. Then Keith looked down at Kosmo, scratching his ears for a second before her heard the sound of teleportation somewhere behind him, and he froze, Kosmo changed their location.

Pidge relaxed, but only slightly. Only one Paladin was free from the Druid's curse, but he wasn't out of the woods-uh, CAVE-yet.

Keith was now crouched under a cave, one hand against Kosmo's fur.

Pidge tensed, as did Keith, listening to the sounds of the Druid, Macidus drawing closer.

Pidge scrambled from her bed, landing on the ground as she let out a cry of pain, groping for her armor when she realized everything has stopped on her gauntlet.

She froze, looking at it. Everything was still.

Suddenly, the sound of electricity buzzing through the air could be found, and Pidge's heart clenched suddenly. No, no! Keith-!

Keith was fine. The Druid must have heard something else, for he continued on his path, footsteps fading.

Keith exhaled in relief, turning to go, before a metal object suddenly appeared in front of his face, and he screamed. Well, not screamed, or yelled, he more of gasped in surprise.

Tossing his arms around Kosmo, his coordinates changed again.

Pidge grabbed her leg pieces, cramming them on with some effort, then pulled them off to put on her jumpsuit. Then pulled them back on, one eye trained on the projection as Keith let out horrified pants every time he turned and found Macidus standing there.

Pidge remained frozen as Keith ran down a tunnel, often teleporting ahead several meters to stay ahead of Macidus, who chuckled evilly whenever he just barely missed Keith.

Keith finally got into a big cavern, halting abruptly as he tried to collect his breath. They must've lost Macidus…

Pidge felt a surge of relief, letting out a puff of relief as she squeezed on her helmet. She mentally cursed the space pirates that messed with her helmet and ultimately broke her coms.

Keith took a deep breath, glancing around him nervously. It was then that he noticed the body hanging by its arms and legs above a pool of water, slowly dripping as it let out haggard breaths.

"Kolivan." Keith gasped, eyes stretching wide in worry.

"He has been…useful." A croaky, rough voice said behind Keith. Macidus.

"What did you do?!" Keith yowled, turning tail to face him.

Macidus only frowned in consideration. "Nothing much."

"I'm going to kill you." Keith growled, activating his Bayard.

"Haggar has forsaken us because of your treachery. But after I kill you and the other Paladins, hopefully she'll allow me back into her ranks."

Keith screamed in fury, trying to hit Macidus, rage in every swing.

Macidus only chuckled, and went in for the kill.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Keith's heart did a backflip in his chest as he dodged the sword thrust his way, blinking in horror at Macidus as he glared at him.

This guy wasn't messing around. Sure, Keith already knew that, but this was the first time it had really hit him. Even with Zarkon and Lotor he had mostly shoved it into the back of his mind, but there was the occasional moment when all his thoughts surfaced and mad him blind with rage.

Keith swung his sword, but failed to lodge it into Macidus's chest as the ex-Druid teleported, giving Kosmo a sharp kick and sending the dog flying.

Keith let out a cry of protest and took a step towards Kosmo when Macidus appeared behind Keith and giving him a rough blow that sent the young Paladin flying.

Keith groaned, blinking up at the knife, oh-so-close to his face. Normally, Keith would accept his fate and succumb to death. But his friends depended on him.

Just then, the roof exploded. Like, literally exploded. Allura and Krolia were first to land on the ground, the other Paladins and finally Romelle and Coran following in suite.

Who'd they get out of whatever trap Macidus set for them? Keith would ask later.

Lance summoned his Bayard, firing several shots at the Druid.

However, Macidus teleported behind them and smashed Romelle and Shiro's heads together, smirking before tossing the ex-Black Paladin at Coran like a sack of potatoes.

"Oh!" Allura growled angrily, summoning her whip and launching it at Macidus.

Macidus instead spawned next to Hunk and gave the Yellow Paladin a well-timed kick in the head, disappearing before Lance and Allura could react to his change in direction. Macidus, in two quick teleports, took out both a Paladins, smirking in victory.

Keith had risen to his feet by now, gazing in shock at his unconscious friends as Macidus sent Krolia rolling.

Keith ran to Macidus, swinging his sword in a daze. Macidus teleported, laughing like mad.

Wait…laughter…

Keith closed his eyes, focusing on the laughter echoing around him. Straining his two ear drums in each ear, Keith was able to make out Macidus's position, and threw his knife.

He briefly wondered if his calculations had been wrong when Macidus appeared in the predicted area, the knife digging into his gut.

Keith watched, without mercy, as Macidus collapsed, not yet dead, but dying. Slowly. Painfully. He deserved nothing less.

Keith felt very tempted to spit on him, the highest form of human disrespect, or to rest his heel against his head, the highest form of Galra disrespect.

He didn't end up doing either, because he remembered Kolivan, staring at the former leader of the blades sadly. Now, how would he get him out of his restraints?

* * *

"He doesn't look good." Krolia hummed, gazing down at the gauntlet's chart. "But, according to the scans, he'll recover."

Kolivan coughed in response, raising his head to look Krolia up and down. "Krolia. It's been deca-phoebs since we last spoke.

"Yes." Krolia put a hand on his shoulder kindly, smiling. "It has."

Kolivan looked over the group, blinking in surprise, though his expression did not betray his emotion. "Where is the small one? Pidge?"

"We had a run in with Lotor's generals, Ezor and Zethrid." Keith admitted.

"She's not…?" Kolivan began, cutting himself off to raise an eyebrow.

Everyone flinched at the possibility.

Allura and Krolia could just imagine the younger Paladin, her armor completely destroyed as she leaned against the cell wall, blood seeping out from her lips.

Hunk and Lance could imagine Ezor throwing Pidge away in disgust after choking her, the youngest never awakening again as she rested upon the ground.

Keith and Shiro both pictured the Green Paladin lying in a pool of her own blood, armor ripped apart around her neck and chest, arms and legs broken and mangled.

"She's not dead." Shiro assured Kolivan, nodding curtly. "Zethrid broke her legs, however. She's resting."

Kolivan tilted his head questioningly. "Are you sure Macidus hasn't teleported to the Lions and killed her yet?"

"Yes." Keith informed him. "He was too busy trying to kill me; I had my eyes on him almost the entire time."

"Of course." Kolivan snorted, shaking his head. "A Druid can not resist fresh blood, especially that of a hybrid." He let out a string of coughs, his body shuddering.

"You must rest." Krolia told him, fingers resting elegantly upon his shoulder.

Keith felt a flicker of dread as he watched her, knees shaking. No, no! Kolivan was a good mentor, but…no, just because Krolia touched him, didn't mean-! Oh, sweet Quiznak no. It probably did.

"I need to collect the remaining Blades. There is no time for rest." Kolivan rasped, changing the subject. "There must be some out there who have yet to be killed."

"I'll come with you." Krolia decided on a whim, squaring her shoulders. "You'll need all the help you can get. But first, we'll need a ship."

"The druid has one stored not too far from here." Kolivan informed her, his breaths becoming more controlled.

Krolia smiled kindly at him, pressing her hand into his shoulder firmly. "That is the first bit of luck we've had in a long time. Rest."

He followed her order, closing his eyes as a dreamless slumber overtook him.

Krolia sighed, rising to her feet as she left the hollow, closing her eyes before turning her attention to her son. "I'm sorry." She hummed, dipping her head slightly. "To have to say goodbye a second time."

"This isn't goodbye." Keith assured her, fumbling for his sheath, then pulled out his knife. "Here. You can have this, and give it back to me when I next see you."

Krolia smiled, taking it from him gently. "Of course."

"Thanks for everything you taught me, Mom." Keith whispered, wrapping his arms tightly around her.

Krolia responded likewise, taking in a shuddering breath.

"Keith." Shiro said, hating to break up the family farewell. "It's time to go."

Keith pulled back, looking at Shiro sorrowfully, then at his mother one last time.

"Return this to Pidge." Krolia ordered him, pressing Pidge's gauntlet into his hand. Then her face softened to a grin. "Tell her that I grant her permission to fly the Green Lion again. Keith, no matter where you travel, or how far you get from me, remember this; I love you, Keith."

"I love you, too, Mom." Keith smiled back, touching the hilt of the knife as a parting farewell.

Krolia gazed out over the faces she had grown familiar with over the last several weeks. (Or was it technically years?) "I will miss you all greatly."

"Thank you, Krolia. It'll be a pleasure when we see you again." Hunk smiled, diplomatic as ever.

Before they could all burst into tears and hug, like they normally would, they separated, the Paladins shuffling out the door.

Krolia stood at the doorway, one hand raised, until they went over a mound and vanished.

When they were only a short distance from the house, Hunk broke the thick silence.

"Was that the first time you've called her Mom?"

"What? No. I didn't call her Mom." Keith protested, keeping down an embarrassed flush

"If that's how lovey-dovey between you and your mom, how romantic did it get between you and Acxa?"

"What? No. She's just a friend." Keith snorted, really wanting to end this conversation.

"I don't believe that." Lance hummed. "It took you TEN MINUTES to say goodbye to her. It was probably romantic at heart…"

"Lance has a point." Shiro smiled, enjoying the teasing that he had missed so much while in the Black Lion. "When did you finally get the courage to talk to girls?"

"Shiro." Keith warned, flashing him an angry look.

Unfortunately, the damage had been done.

"What? Mullet used to be shy around girls?" Lance grinned, enjoying this new information.

"Shiro!" Keith glared, his adopted brother only shrugging off his look playfully. "See why I never open up to you guys?"

"What's a 'mullet'?" Romelle inquired, drawing a blank. "Is Keith a 'mullet'?"

"Earthlings are extremely strange." Allura sighed, setting a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry that I haven't been able to give you proper instructions on Earthling etiquette." Then, in a louder voice so that everyone could clearly hear, she boomed "we begin tomorrow! Romelle, you'll be riding in the Blue Lion again with us."

"Alright!" Romelle nodded, eager to learn all the strange arts of the humans.

"So, Keith, do you and Acxa have, like, a secret way to communicate, to send your love letters to each other?" Lance prodded, a wide smile coming across his face as he nudged Keith pointedly.

"No. How would we do that?" Keith grunted, rolling his eye. He really just wanted Lance to shut the quiznak up.

"I dunno…you, like, snuck a communicator into the Black Lion?"

Keith decided to give him a look like he was stupid.

"I dunno man," Hunk mused, grinning, "Shiro used to say that you always used to sneak things into the Garrison. What was it you said he got into there? How many mechanical pencils?

"Twenty of them that he hid in his jacket." Shiro chuckled. "He said 'it was as close as he could get to real knives without looking suspicious'."

"I never said that!" Keith huffed. "I said that they were a good, reliable source of self-defense. Jam it into somebody's neck, he's out of the fight."

"Right, right." Shiro shook his head, not really caring about Keith's reasonings.

"Well, despite everything, didn't you still manage to sneak a knife into the Garrison?" Hunk prodded, laughing now.

"Uh-huh…" Keith didn't like how the direction this was going in. "…why do you ask?"

"What else did he get into there?" Hunk asked, turning to Shiro.

"Didn't you once sneak a rabid puppy into the Garrison?" Shiro suggested, tilting his head.

"Shut. Up." Keith grunted.

"You got a puppy into the Garrison?" Lance giggled. "What'd they do with it when they found it?"

"Well…" Keith trailed off, sending Shiro a rotten glare. If looks could kill, his adopted brother would be in the Black Lion again. "They never did. Shiro here found out and told me off.

"It's not my fault animals are against Garrison policy." Shiro shrugged helplessly, smiling slightly. "Besides, you know that it's wrong to give a rabid animal to someone."

"It was James! He deserved that! You delayed justice!"

"Did I?" Shiro asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Remember, you instantly had a backup plan."

"Ah, yes. The poison ivy." Keith reflected, smiling. "I completely forgot about that."

"How'd you get it into the Garrison without getting rashes?" Lance asked, invested in the story.

"I never get rashes."

"Or rabies." Shiro muttered, causing all the Paladins to laugh.

For a time, they forgot about all their problems, and let down their guard. How good it felt just to laugh.

* * *

 **Alright, guys. Time to get serious. This is the last scheduled update, because I'm going to be focusing on my other books. So…sorry! When I lift the hiatus, I'll tell you guys and inform you which days will be my new update days, but, for now, I bid you fairwell.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hiatus over! I hope to finish it before, or the day after S8 premiers, but no promises.**

 **I will try to update every Saturday and at least get to Earth arrival.**

 **…I didn't remember the dialogue all that well. Please don't kill me…**

* * *

Pidge took Krolia leaving very well, and used it to her advantage.

About a week after the incident, six days of endless begging on Pidge's part, the Paladins relented.

"Are you sure?" Keith asked over the comms, his voice containing no hints of emotion.

"Mmhmm." Pidge nodded, beaming at nothing in particular. "I'm sure. I don't want to be a burden any longer."

"You're not a-" Shiro began, but Pidge interrupted.

"You know what I mean. Unable to do stuff, like Romelle."

"Ouch." Romelle mumbled.

"You know, Romelle kinda cursed us." Lance suddenly realized. "She said something like…what was it Romelle? Something about breaking a leg…"

Romelle cleared her throat. "I said "But what if you need to go to the bathroom, you break your leg, we're attacked, and I have to save the day?!"

"Yeah! That. She kinda jinxed it." Lance shrugged, sighing. "Romelle should be gagged for the rest of the trip…"

"It's not like if I say "Cosmic Storm" suddenly a cosmic storm occurs." Romelle huffed.

A moment of silence.

"What's that?" Lance asked, curious.

The was a bit of panicked silence, then "LANCE!" Filled the comms, causing Pidge to wince.

"Whaaaaat? We all know we're going to eventually run into one, no matter what."

"Yeah, well, how about YOU don't jinx it, Lance?" Keith growled.

"…you bring a fair point, master." Lance murmured.

"Don't call me that."

"Call you what, master?"

"Mmm…" Keith grumbled. "Going back to our previous conversation, Pidge, if you feel like you can do this, go for it."

Pidge smirked at Shiro, who was still hesitant, and crossed her arms. "You heard Gold Leader."

"Don't call me that either."

Shiro sighed, scooping her up. "I still don't like this." He made sure to voice his discomfort, glancing at Pidge.

"Eh." Pidge shrugged. "But Keith said it's okay, and he's next in command after Krolia."

"Krolia wasn't in charge…" Shiro started uncertainly.

"She sure acted like it." Pidge huffed.

"Yeah, she did!" Lance agreed loudly.

"You said it." Hunk hissed.

"Don't get me started." Allura hummed.

"She didn't bother me at all!" Romelle chimed.

"Guys, she was a good leader." Keith grumbled.

"Ha! See?! She WAS our leader!" Pidge crooned in victory, chuckling maniacally.

Shiro didn't grace that with a response. Instead, he carried her to the cockpit of the Green Lion, settling her down in the seat to insure she didn't hurt her legs.

"Krolia wouldn't approve." He said aloud without meaning to.

"Whatever." Pidge sneered, tightening her hands on the controls.

It never ceased to amaze Shiro how the lights and holo screens appeared the moment the Paladin seated themselves. It was crazy.

"I still don't like this idea." Shiro grumbled, pulling back from Pidge as she adjusted herself.

"Yeah, well…" Keith probably shrugged. "If Pidge thinks she can do this, she probably can. She's the best at evaluating her limits then all of us…"

"Thank you, Keith!" Pidge beamed, turning to face Shiro. "See? I'm good."

Shiro looked blankly at her. The point was, she would overstep her boundaries if she wanted to prove herself, if she didn't feel secure enough.

* * *

It took several days, but, eventually Shiro let her fly the Green Lion without his ever-watchful guardianship. He still stood by her side, but he managed to break himself away to take naps - that made him sound like a toddler, but he was recovering! - and to go to the bathroom.

Pidge made small talk with the others, laughing at their jokes.

After about four movements, everyone finally snapped.

Shiro walked in on her just as she shouted "IT'S ONE AND A HALF YEARS!"

He took a step back, but she didn't take any notice of him.

"Although there's a margin of error of about one month give or take if we run into any time problems, yes, it'll be a year." Pidge continued, her voice still frosty.

"Oh." Lance mumbled, not appreciating being yelled at. He glanced outside the window, trying to ignore Romelle, who was simply sitting, staring at her legs but at the same time fidgeting with her skirt.

Outside his window, there wasn't much of a view. Just endless black with about one, maybe two stars in the entire void. "Pidge?" He asked, trying to keep his voice from trembling.

"What?" Pidge was exasperated, angry, even.

"Why is this section of space so dark?" Lance didn't mention how scary it was, the infinite void closing in around them.

"Eh. It's probably just from lack of any celestial bodies around."

"Oh. Must be some of that dark matter I've heard about."

"Laaaance…" Pidge groaned, shaking her head. "That's not what dark matter is."

Lance frowned, confused. What was dark matter, then?

"But, I guess it's so DARK that it doesn't MATTER much anymore." Hunk chimed, laughing at his own joke.

Though Lance smiled, he didn't answer his best friend with a laugh.

Nobody else did, either.

"Heh… heh…this is why nobody rides with me anymore, is it?" Hunk sighed, falling silent after his remark.

There was a bit of silence, then Hunk sighed again. "I want an adventure. I don't usually like them, but when we're out here for this long I get bored."

Pidge ducked her head slightly. She just knew they'd leave her behind again if an adventure did come their way.

"Don't worry, Hunk." Lance chimed, deadly serious but keeping a light tone in his voice. "If there's anything I've learned about space, it's that something always comes around to kill us. Always."

Meanwhile, an idea began to form in Shiro's head.


	10. Chapter 9

**Sorry that I didn't update last week. I…ran out of inspiration. Again.**

* * *

It was several days later that Shiro finally recalled all the events that supported his plan and a few ideas.

But with a deep breath, he began.

"Everyone." He said, his voice carrying across the coms.

He could tell by the sudden shifting he could hear that everyone was laying close attention suddenly.

"Remember before I…" he paused for a moment in thought, "disappeared, when we were fighting Zarkon, and we were hit with that ball of energy?"

"Yeah!" Hunk chimed. "It drained all of Voltron's energy…"

At the same moment it clicked with Keith. "We powered up Voltron on our own."

"That's right." Shiro agreed. "Maybe you could do it again."

There was a moment of silence as they regarded this. Maybe they could…

"I can't help but feel that this is my fault." Allura murmured, heartbroken. "Ever since I joined in I've been dragging you down, and you have been unable to accomplish such a feat."

"It's…no one's fault." Shiro assured her. "But if you were all a group of fully realized Paladins, you could do it."

"…Shiro's right." Lance decided, smiling. "We should try."

"Shiro, with all that you've been through, how did you find the strength to continue being Voltron's leader?" Keith inquired, the curiosity thick in his voice.

"I had help." Shiro smiled gently, setting his hand on the back of Pidge's chair. "That's why there's five of you. To lift each other up."

Everyone made sounds of happiness, appreciation, and agreement.

"So…what should we do?" Hunk asked, thinking about strengthening their bonds with their lions.

"Well…let's try formation flying." Keith suggested.

"Wait, what's that?" Pidge quipped.

Shiro, also looking out the cockpit window, had the same thought.

"Oh, you know," Keith probably wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, his voice taking on the fondness of an older brother. "When you fly in line-"

"No!" Pidge protested, shaking her head. "That! Outside the window!"

"Holy crow!" Lance stammered, jumping.

"It's a comic storm!" Romelle gulped, shaking.

"AW! COM'N!" Lance yelled.

"We can make it through it, guys." Keith's voice, though calm, had a slight tremor in it.

At that moment it hit.

Everyone shrunk back every time they were hit, yelping in shock.

Pidge tried to jerk her lion out of the way of a ball of electricity, but instead her lion only succeed in back tracking a little bit, only delaying the collision.

Shiro shook for a moment, grinding his teeth to hold back a cry of pain, though Pidge wasn't able to hold back all the noise and released a yell at the same time that the others let out screams, Keith literally howling.

The world went black.

Pidge gasped, freezing as the cosmic storm disappeared. Her lion wasn't operating, completely still as she floated through the void of space. "Guys?" She asked, a slight tremor in her voice. "Are you there?"

"Mmm…everything hurts…" Lance whined.

"At least you can feel! Everything's numb for me." Hunk complained.

"Pins and needles…" Keith groaned, sighing deeply. "Nngh…"

"Hmm. This feeling is…unpleasant." Allura murmured uncomfortable.

"G-guys, I don't think you've noticed, but the lions are drifting apart!" Hunk cried, inhaling deeply.

"On it!" Pidge chimed, hoping against hope that they wouldn't remember her legs. Luckily, (or perhaps unluckily) nobody called her out. She turned around, and-

"Quiznaking ruggle!" She screamed, staring in horror at Shiro, who was frozen like a statue, unmoving. "Shiro, Shiro, can you hear me?!"

"Buddy, what is it?" Keith asked, his entire voice shaken with worry. "My wolf's not responding."

"Neither is Coran, or the mice!" Allura wailed, trembling.

"Same with Romelle." Lance informed them, the only one sounding even slightly calm. "What's going on?"

"The same shock that got the lions must have effected them, though our armor protected us!" Allura realized suddenly.

"The good news is that Shiro's vitals are steady. It's just like he's…frozen in time." Pidge murmured, and the others breathed sighs of relief.

"Right, but what about the lions?" Hunk asked Allura, voice tightening.

"I might have something to tie the lions together." Allura noted thoughtfully.

"Some magical powers you learned on Oriande?" Lance suggested, sounding hopeful.

"No. I have some leftover zip-line cable in the cargo bay." Allura quipped, the sounds of her jetpack flaring up.

"Oh." Lance mumbled, not sounding quiet as cheerful. In fact, it was like he was down-right let down.

Pidge rolled her eyes, jet-packing out. She winced slightly as her leg got caught on the doorway, mumbling a little exclamation of pain.

Nobody made a comment, so she breathed a sigh of relief, escaping from her lion.

She watched as the others appeared too, immediately going to the jaws of their lions and pushing with all their might.

"Ooh…" Hunk mumbled heavily, watching all the lions spinning…and spinning…and spinning… "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Keep it together, Hunk!" Lance ordered, groaning.

"You will all have to push the lions to my position!" Allura ordered from Blue. "Otherwise there won't be enough cable to connect them."

Everyone fell into a silent routine of pushing and shoving and gasping for breath as their lions didn't move in the slightest.

"Out jet packs don't have enough thrust! We're going to have to do this one by one!" Hunk groaned eventually, the light from his said equipment dying.

"Hunk's right. Everyone head over to the Yellow Lion." Keith ordered, and everyone began to journey to Yellow.

No sooner had they all arrived and gotten in position to begin pushing that Lance looked to the side and inhaled sharply. "Oh-no!"

A quick check revealed a new, even bigger cosmic storm headed towards the Lions and the small, defenseless Paladins.

"Everyone! Get to cover!" Keith ordered, reaching out to grab the Yellow Lion's 'cheek bones'.

In the next moment it was upon them, clawing and pushing at them, trying to pry their fingers out of their hold on the Yellow Lion.

Pidge's deadweight legs only drug her down, giving her no options to try to get a foothold (if one was even to be found) and just hung there, pulling at her body.

It took hardly three seconds for Pidge's grip to begin slipping, and she cried out to her friends. "I…can't hold…on much long- AAAH!" And then her grip lessened and she was tossed about the storm like a leaf in a breeze.

She could hardly see the others being knocked off and heading towards her, and she screamed, begging them silently to be alright.

Oh why did she have to join them? If she was in the lions she could be safe…selfish, she knew, but, still.

As suddenly as the storm began, it was over.

But they were still being thrown around, and Keith's order hardly reached Pidge's ears to grab hold of each other, lest they lose each other.

Allura's hand suddenly lashed out, grasping Pidge.

The two woman clung to each other, Pidge clinging onto her arm like it was her last lifeline.

She felt Lance latch onto her leg, and she held back a scream as her bone shifted slightly, grinding against each other.

Lance didn't hear the slight pop, nor did he hear the rattling sound.

After several agonizing seconds, they were all connected.

"Alright, guys, does anyone know where the lions are?" Keith asked, staring into the distance as he searched for them.

"No…" Lance sighed.

"We drifted so far out, I can't even know which direction they're in." Hunk groaned.

"I don't see them." Pidge noted.

"Oh, sweet Altea! Whatever will we do?!" Allura wailed.

"Keep calm, everyone." Keith ordered, staring around. "Our suits will recycle enough moisture to keep us hydrated. We just need to hang right for a while."

"Don't worry, Hunk." Lance soothed his best friend, who was looking especially let-down and grossed out by Keith's assurance. "Something will be along to kill us aaaaaaany minute now. Aaaaaaany minute."

Dead silence met Lance's statement.

Two ticks.

Five ticks.

Ten ticks.

"Ye-no. That doesn't make me feel better!" Hunk moaned, shaking his head.

"Yeah. Sorry." Lance sighed, looking into the distance regions of stars. "Just…trying to lighten the mood."

Ten minutes passed in slow precession, the ticking agonizing.

3.14159265358979323… Pidge had resorted to reciting pi. There wasn't much else to do. …238462643383279…

"Woah, Pidge!" Hunk suddenly cried, shattering the moment of blissful calculating. "What about your legs?! Why're you even out here?"

Ah. Here was the moment she was waiting for. The moment where everyone exploded on her. It was a distraction to say the least.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Earth was in ruins. Pidge could see that from the moment Hunk picked her up and carried her out of the wrecked Galra fighter.

Pidge almost wept to see their home destroyed, in shambles.

Everyone, coming out of the ship behind them, looked as ruined and wrecked as their home.

Keith had been the only one to be beat them out of the ship. He had launched himself from the cockpit right before it crashed into the ground. He was holding his arm funny, and he was limping. His forehead and cheek had been cut, probably by some loose pebbles, but that was the only issue.

Shiro looked very tired, his entire body sagging. His left arm was cut from the wrist to his middle finger, and his cheek was bruised.

The rest of the team was better off.

Pidge looked at her exhausted team, then at the wrecked city, the endless desert behind it.

"We. Are. Doomed." She deadpanned, nuzzling into Hunk's hold.

"Don't be like that." Hunk shrugged. "Who knows, the Garrison might be sending reinforcements right now!"

"We brought the healing pod, right?" Keith suddenly asked, perking up.

The Paladins had previously decided to bring along the healing pod with them to Earth. If Earth had some way to recharge it, Pidge could be up and at 'em within the end of the day. And that's what all of them wanted.

Lance came over to take care of Pidge for a moment, Hunk and Allura walking over to the ruins of the wrecked Galra ship, and, after a bit of searching, pulled out the blackened - and slightly busted - healing pod.

Allura had realized that, by using a crystal that might be in Commander Holt's possession, she could recharge the Cryo pod and heal Pidge completely before they took on the Galra.

Fortunately, the pod had enough energy to stay in hover-mode for a while, so they decided to use that opportunity to tow it around.

Secretly they all hoped they didn't have to walk all the way to the Garrison, even with the floating pod.

Lance distracted Pidge's attention from the healing pod, swinging her onto his back with a solid move.

Pidge winced slightly when he grabbed her legs, but stifled the frown when Shiro glanced over.

After several minutes of collecting everything they needed, Hunk scooped up Pidge gently.

"Let's go."

The eight of them - and Kosmo - started into the town, smelling the whiffs of smoke that still lingered in the air from the fires that had taken over the town not too long ago.

"This is terrible." Pidge murmured from her safe cubby in Hunk's arms. "So many people lost their homes…"

"And their lives." Keith deadpanned, always the

Everyone shifted uneasily at his words, frowning down at their boots.

"What? It's true." As if to illustrate his point, Keith stepped over a grey, rotten hand that was barely peaking out from underneath a pile of rubble.

Pidge winced, turning her face away from it drearily, focusing on Hunk's chest plate's symbol.

Allura spared her a sympathetic look, smiling a bit regretfully as she walked past, pushing the healing pod on.

"Pidge, check our position." Keith ordered, pausing beside a car as he addressed the youngest Paladin.

Pidge pulled out her gauntlet, looking at it curiously. After a few seconds, she looked back up at their leader. "If we keep going straight for six more blocks, we'll end in up in city square, and from there we-"

"Tell me once we get there." Keith sighed, turning curiously to look over the Toyota mini-van.

Pidge was about to put away her gauntlet when she suddenly noticed three blinking red dots. "We've got company, guys!"

The entire group huddled down on the 'safe' side of the car, Shiro bending his body around Pidge protectively.

Pidge felt a bit uncomfortable in that position, but she didn't complain.

"How many?" Keith asked Pidge just as the lasers from the drones began hitting the top of the car, a few making it over the roof of the car, landing near their outstretched feet.

"Three." Pidge read off her screen, raising her head to look at Keith's concentrated face as he thought.

"Okay. Lance, I'm going to lure them out. I run, you shoot." Keith paused just long enough to shoot Lance a serious glare, snarling. "Don't miss."

"When have I ever missed?" Lance grinned cockily, but Keith was already running into the fire of the drones, not even bothering to turn on his shield.

The drones – foolishly – immediately turned their complete and undivided attention to Keith, and Lance took his opening, firing three times and knocking the drones down before they could fire upon his leader.

"Boo-yah! Lance style!" Lance whooped, blowing on the top of his gun like it was a cartoon and he was stopping his gun from smoking. But, given how everyone was looking at him weird, it wasn't working.

"Yeah, yeah." Keith snorted, shaking his head as he rejoined them.

"It looks like we got three more incoming." Pidge warned, and Keith slipped back down beside him.

"They're not drones." Shiro hissed as more gun fire thudded on their location. "Look."

Keith peaked over the top of the car, sighing slightly. "He's right. They're sentries. The 'chicken-run-and-fire' plan won't work."

"That's what we're calling it?" Lance pouted, no doubt offended by the choice of name. As if he would have come up with anything better.

Keith didn't bother to give him a response, summoning his sword. "Alright. Lance, Hunk, get your bayards. Allura and I will—" He was cut off by a loud screech, the fire stopping for a second, before one last wild shot sounded.

Romelle peaked over the rim of the car, her little squeak urging the others to look over the car.

Two cars stood parked where the sentries had been a moment before.

"We got them!" The driver of one of them peaked out of the car, waving to the Paladins. "Hey! You guys need a hand?" She asked as she stepped out the door.

The other driver, this time a boy, also came out. Pulling off his helmet and tucking it under one arm. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the Paladins of Voltron?"

"James." Keith hissed at the boy, who smirked in an unflattering manner. "We had it!" He shouted a bit louder, glaring at the man.

"Ha! Sentries and drones send out a distress signal when they're attacked." James adopted a snarky tone, shaking his head. "Our guns neutralize those signals. Soo…unless if you want to be swarmed by a load of those guys, let us handle it."

Keith bared his teeth, earing a surprised look from the other Paladins. Nobody – who was on their side – had ever ticked him off so much before.

"Now, I'm guessing that all of you want a ride back to the Garrison." The girl hummed, leaning against her truck snootily.

" _Yes_." Lance said the single word with so much force, that all the Paladins and the newcomers looked surprised by the eagerness of his tone. "Please."

"Well, then." The girl blinked. "Get in." She slid open the doors, gesturing them in.

Keith made a point of going in hers and avoiding 'James', snarling at the armored man as he went past. James just shrugged at him.

Allura, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge loaded into James' rover, which also carried the Cryo pod, and Keith, Coran, Romelle, and Shiro went into the other one, while Kosmo tucked himself on top of it.

The moment that the full group squeezed in, they started off, carefully maneuvering their way through the city.

"How excited are you to see your families?" Lance asked Pidge and Hunk giddily, squeezing their wrists.

"Man, I literally cannot wait." Hunk beamed, bouncing up and down.

"I'm just worried how they'll react to my legs." Pidge mumbled uncertainly. At Lance's questioning look; he hadn't heard what she said, she changed her tone. "I'm excited! They might have a spare crystal to charge the healing pod."

Lance glanced toward the part of the roof the healing pod rested, sighing. "They better. We won't be able to face Sendak until you heal."

Pidge nodded, looking dully out the window.

The rest of the trip was silent, not very exciting.

But…the moment that they saw the Garrison doors, Hunk began to cry, hugging Lance, who sat in the middle, between his two arms.

"We're home!"

"This is the Garrison?" Allura asked, blinking at the building. "I was expecting it to look more like the Castle of Lions."

"Nope." James grunted, turning his face towards her but keeping his eyes on the road. "This looks nothing like the Castle of Lions."

"Do you even know what the Castle looks like?"

"Uh-huh. I've seen pictures." James maneuvered the truck through the doors, and Pidge's heart squeezed.

They were so close!

She just knew that the moment she left the rover, all her emotions would come running out, and she'd begin crying.

Lance squeezed her hand, as if he could sense her built up emotions. Just a few minutes more…

The rover pulled to a stop after what seemed like an eternity, and James pushed the button that opened the doors.

Pidge felt Lance's arms helping her up to her shaky feet, and she looked around the crowd anxiously.

It took hardly two seconds for her to see her mother, Colleen's entire form trembling.

Pidge's backpack flared, catapulting her into the air.

Colleen ran forward, reaching out her arms towards her daughter.

They met in the middle, arms clinging around each other despertly.

Pidge, sure enough, began crying. It wasn't from the odd angle her legs were twisted at, but from the love and thankfulness she felt at being reunited with her mother.

Several minutes passed, in which she knew the others were reunited with their families and were sharing tears of love and joy.

It didn't take nearly as long as she wanted for her mother to break away.

"Katie!" Her mother hiccupped as she forced back her sobs. "How are you?"

"I've been fine!" Pidge sobbed back, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. She knew, however, that she couldn't withhold her injury from her mother for long. "But…Mom…"

She paused, not really wanting her mother to freak out.

"What is it, Katie?" Colleen froze, eyes widening as she realized that Pidge was about to say something terrible.

"My legs are broken…" Pidge admitted, looking down uneasily. "I…"

"Oh my gosh!" Colleen's hands went to her mouth in shock, and she jumped up, whirling around. "Sam!"

Sam, from where we stood talking to Coran and the others a little ways off, looked over.

Seeing his wife's panicked expression, he rushed over. "What's wrong?" He demanded instantly.

While Colleen explained in horror to him what happened, he stared at his daughter in shock. "How did this happen?"

"We—" Pidge began, but he cut her off.

"Tell me later." He scooped her up, hugging her close. "Right now, we need to get you better.

"Wait!" Pidge stopped him, touching him on the shoulder. "We brought along one of our healing pods! But it isn't charged, but if we have a power source, we could get it up and running!"

"Right! Iverson, get the spare crystal!" Sam ordered, then turned to a few workers. "Get the healing pod!"

As everyone rushed around, Pidge finally – for the first time in about a week - felt like everything would be okay.

(:)

 **So…I decided to end it there. I didn't realize that it was so close to the twentieth until, like, three days ago, and was in a rush to get it out on time. That's why the ending seems so rushed.**


End file.
